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FIM Sells Non-MySpace Intermix Assets, Technology To Former CEO Rosenblatt’s Demand Media

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You’re reading it here first ...  Richard Rosentblatt, who engineered the attention-getting sale of Intermix and its chief asset MySpace.com, has acquired assets of Intermix Network LLC from Fox Interactive Media for his Demand Media. No terms for the sale, which closed last Friday. The News Corp. unit acquired flawed Intermix 14 months ago —the deal closed in Sept. 2005—as a way of gaining the pearl in the oyster, MySpace. (To be fair, Intermix was the rehab of flawed predecessor eUniverse.)  Some of the other assets were intriguing at the time—talking about the deal at the time Ross Levinsohn saw potential in Grab.com, for instance— but without MySpace, we wouldn’t have been hearing any $580 million noise about the company.  FIM actually has made use of Grab.com or, more literally, some of the technology behind the site. FIM retains the rights to the Grab.com social networking code base now being used for foxsports.com, americanidol.com and other FIM operations. Demand Media gets a license to the code as well. FIM also retains a perpetual royalty-free license for the casual games that came with the company.
The assets being acquired by Demand Media include:
—Social Labs LLC (historic note: that was the subsidiary that held the MySpace interest).
—Web assets spanning 20 sites including Grab.com, gamerival.com, flowgo.com.
—Lead generator Focalex.com.
FIM statement: “Fox Interactive Media (FIM) has sold most of the remaining, non-MySpace assets of Intermix Network LLC to Demand Media.  These assets weren’t vital to our long-term plan and selling them to an interested third party made the most sense from both a strategic and financial perspective.”
Update: Just got off the phone with Demand Media CEO Richard Rosenblatt—turns out my initial query caught folks off guard—and have some more details about the acquisition:
Rosenblatt: “We are either going to relaunch, sell or close down a number of the web sites ... We are trying to decide how to add web 2.0” across the relaunched sites. The Grab.com code mentioned above—Demand Media has a perpetual license—will play a important role as will the tech team coming over as part of the acquisition along other tools and technology. Rosenblatt said the new tools and technologies will be used across Demand Media’s sites and domains.
—The plan is to launch a casual gaming vertical, an entertainment and to grow the reference.how-to vertical.  Demand Media did not acquire the Intermix Network name, only select assets.  Rosenblatt said the company has yet to decide what its brands will be. 
—The sites to be relaunched include Grab.com, CasesLadder.com, reference/how-to site soyouwanna.com, gamerival.com, coolquiz.com.
—Focalex.com is one of the sites not be retained; no direct response as to whether it is going to be part of Seed Advertising, as we’ve been told.
—This is Demand Media’s ninth acquisition. Rosenblatt: “We plan on having a mix of organic and strategic growth. Going forward, the focus is on organic growth.” The Intermix sites being acquired account for 5 million-plus monthly uniques.

Nov 20, 2006 1:48 PM ET

Posted In: Exclusive, Companies, News Corp., Fox, Fox Interactive Media

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