Media Chain offloads assets to Daily Mash owner
A mobile-first digital content business is to pay £800,000 for digital assets owned by Media Chain, the company started by Dragon’s Den investor Steven Bartlett in 2014.
Digitalbox plc, which owns Entertainment Daily, The Daily Mash, The Tab, and The Poke is to acquire the digital assets of 99 Problems, Student Problems and The Life Network Shopping from Media Chain Group Limited, which is still owned by the German marketing company which Bartlett sold his agency in 2019 to, and which then renamed itself “Social Chain AG”.
Digitalbox is to pay US$800,000 subject to “completion of satisfactory testing by Digitalbox”.
The other parts of Bartlett’s former business were sold in the spring of 2023 leaving the media division (Media Chain Group Limited) that houses 20+ social pages with over 60m followers.
The satisfactory testing by Digitalbox involves a licence agreement until the end of November 2023.
A payment of $79,000 is payable immediately on Exchange as a non-refundable deposit to trigger the license term through a single $1,000 fee, and a further $720,000 payable on completion – which is anticipated to be within two to five months from the date of Exchange – through a deferred payment of $520,000 in cash and $200,000 in Digitalbox ordinary shares.
Christian Grobel, CEO, Media Chain Group Limited, said: “We are pleased to be offering these assets to a great home. The audience bases we have built will complement the Digitalbox portfolio and benefit from the Company’s talented editorial departments. We wish them the best of luck with the next stage of development for their brands.”
James Carter, CEO, Digitalbox, said: “The opportunity to acquire some of the Media Chain Group assets is an excellent way for us to explore significantly extending the audiences currently being served by the Digitalbox brands. With 99 Problems having started life as a social page called Student Problems, we believe there are plenty of synergies to build around The Tab whilst there is very strong common ground between Entertainment Daily’s audience and those who follow The Life Shopping Network. The management team will get to work straight away on proving this case before Completion.”
