One of the UK’s leading partner networks Base79 has been bought by rival Rightster. The buyout was a cash and shares deal worth £50million.
Content creators signed to Base79, such as beauty vlogger Patricia Bright and prankster Callum McGinley, will join Rightster and form the biggest MCN outside of the US.
Patrick Walker, Base79′s current senior executive, will join Righter’s executive team to make the transition smoother for the network.
Chad Hurley, co-founder of YouTube and the key investor in this deal, will become a Rightster shareholder and join its advisory committee.
The network has also acquired Viral Spiral – who licence the rights for ‘cute’ videos such as Cute Cats Playing Patty Cake and 2 year old dancing the jive – for £4.1m in cash and shares.
Speaking to The Guardian, Rightster’s founder Charlie Muirhead said: “Acquiring Base79 and Viral Spiral is transformational for Rightster… the greater scale and expertise improves the service we will be able to offer creators and publishers, improving our ability to both grow audiences and increase monetisation.”
Base79 are not the first UK-based network to be bought out. In early 2012, ChannelFlip was acquired by Shine Group, a media production company founded by Elisabeth Murdoch. Since the acquisition ChannelFlip’s founders, Justin Gayner and Will Harris, have stepped down as well as Partner Manager Susie Weaser who is now taking up a more part-time role within the company.
More recently in the US, Maker Studios – founded by stars of The Station such as Lisa Nova, Kassem G, Shay Carl and Phillip DeFranco – was purchased by Disney for £585m. This move has sparked talks between Time Warner and Fullscreen about a future possible deal.
As the climate surrounding MCN’s changes, it is still unclear how this will effect content creators and their videos. Either way, Summer in the City founder Tom Burns and UK-based vlogger Evan Edinger are intrigued:
@AliJardz @BaseSeventyNine @Rightster Article also mentions Viral Spiral being acquired. Very interested to see what comes of this!
— Tom Burns (@TomRPI) July 8, 2014
@AliJardz @BaseSeventyNine @Rightster Oooo now that's an interesting acquisition
— Evan DEADinger (@EvanEdinger) July 8, 2014
For updates follow @TenEightyUK on Twitter or TenEighty UK on Facebook.
