GP Bullhound acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Gamer Network on its sale to ReedPOP, the world’s largest producer of games and pop culture live events, a boutique group within Reed Exhibitions, part of RELX Group.
Established in 1999, Gamer Network is one of the world’s leading games media businesses and is home to editorial and community websites and YouTube channels, including internationally renowned flagship brands Eurogamer, RockPaperShotgun and VG247.
The company also organises the UK’s biggest games event, EGX and the world class indie games event, EGX Rezzed.
The acquisition of Gamer Network by ReedPOP will create the world’s leading events and media group for the gaming community.
This powerful combination gives ReedPOP a truly unique opportunity to combine its leading live games events across four continents with a huge, dedicated worldwide online community of more than 50 million monthly users, and marks ReedPOP’s first expansion beyond its events production business.
“We’re delighted to join the ReedPOP group,” said Gamer Network founder Rupert Loman.
“The ambition and strategy that we share means we’re extremely excited about what’s next.
“GP Bullhound were a great advisory partner for us – they have strong expertise in both digital and traditional media and were instrumental in driving a successful transaction.”
Chris Graves, executive director at GP Bullhound said: “Gamer Network is a real pioneer in combining online and offline media, having built a fantastic portfolio of digital brands alongside the leading event in UK gaming.
“We believe that companies that can do this have great strategic value for traditional media acquirers.”
This represents GP Bullhound’s ninth transaction in the digital media sector in the last 18 months alone and further underlines the firm’s expertise in advising category leaders in the sector.
Previous transactions completed for clients include Cubic Motion (investment from NorthEdge), Media iQ (investment from ECI Partners), Gleam (investment from Dentsu), Splash Damage (sold to Leyou Technologies) and Playdemic (sold to Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment).