Advisers behind cross-border e-commerce deal revealed

A Rugeley-based e-commerce firm has been sold to private equity-backed Fandom – with an East Midlands team providing advice to the vendors.

Fanatical, which specialises in gaming e-commerce, was founded in 1995 as as a distributor of PC CD-ROM software. To date, the site has sold over 80 million gaming keys to customers in 200-plus countries.

San Francisco based Fandom (previously known as Wikia) was founded in 1995 and is considered the world’s largest fan platform with more than 330 million monthly users. It specialises in content around gaming, comic books, movies and TV shows.

Craig Johnson, co-founder and managing director of Fanatical, said “Everyone here at Fanatical is thrilled to become part of the Fandom family. The synergies between our two companies are undeniable and the opportunities that this acquisition presents are both incredibly exciting and vast.

“We felt fully supported by our advisory teams – their joined-up approach, hard work and dedication ensured the transaction was a smooth one. We really appreciate all they did in successfully getting the deal done and can’t praise them enough.”

East Midlands advisers from Bishopsgate Corporate Finance and Browne Jacobson advised the shareholders of Focus Multimedia, which trades as Fanatical.

James McBain Allan, partner at Bishopsgate Corporate Finance who provided lead advisory services to Fanatical said: “This is yet another cross-border deal, advised by Bishopsgate, of a Midlands business which really demonstrates Bishopsgate’s global reach and expertise. This was a complex deal that marks an exciting stage for the Fanatical – Fandom team and we are thrilled to have been part of it.”

The Browne Jacobson team was led by corporate finance partner Paul McCannah who added: “We are delighted to have delivered a successful outcome for the Fanatical Team on a deal that is testament to the strength and heritage of the gaming sector in the Midlands.

“This latest successful cross-border transaction has enabled us to further demonstrate the strength of our specialist corporate finance expertise with tech and gaming sector insight on a complex and time critical deal.”