Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation announced Thursday that it would buy IGN Entertainment, Inc., which owns a host of video game-related properties, for $650 million. The move is the latest in a series
of News Corp. purchases of online companies; in July, News Corp. purchased MySpace.com operator Intermix Media for $580 million, and last month it acquired Scout Media Inc., a Seattle-based online
sports company that operates 200 Web sites.
IGN's game-related properties include GameSpy, FilePlanet, TeamXbox, 3D Gamers, Direct2Drive, and GameStats.com, as well as a network of sites in
the "Vault" and "Planet" networks--CamelotVault.com, WoWVault.com, PlanetXbox.com, and PlanetPS2, for example. IGN also owns movie sites Rotten Tomatoes.com and IGN FilmForce, as well as male
lifestyle site AskMen.com.
Jack Flanagan, senior vice president at comScore Media Metrix, said the move will give News Corp. substantially more reach in the male 18-34 demographic. "News Corp.
already has a substantial online footprint with major brands such as Fox News, Fox Sports, and MySpace," he said. "The acquisition of IGN adds a significant visitor base in the gaming sector, and
increases Fox's exposure among the prized 18- to-34-year-old male audience."
According to comScore's numbers, from July 2004 to July 2005, News Corp.'s online properties saw a decrease of 1
percent to 11.5 million total unique U.S. visitors, whereas IGN saw a 34 percent increase to 10.8 million. The overlap between the two sites' viewership is 1.7 million, meaning that the two networks
will have a combined reach of 20.6 million, according to comScore.