Fandom-Focused Sports & Lifestyle Publisher to Expand Minute Media’s Position of Strength in the Us Sports Digital Media Market

Minute Media, a leading global technology and digital publishing platform, announced it has acquired FanSided from Meredith Corporation, marking the fourth acquisition for Minute Media over the past 18 months. FanSided is one of the fastest growing platforms of sports and lifestyle digital properties, with more than 300 destinations focused on specific professional sports teams, college sports, lifestyle trends, and more. When combined with Minute Media’s existing sports digital audience, Minute Media will have one of the largest sports audiences in the US.

Minute Media announced it has acquired FanSided from Meredith Corporation, its fourth acquisition over the past 18 months.

FanSided and its platform of individual sites will remain as standalone properties that will operate within the Minute Media family of publishers and have access to Minute Media’s proprietary technology and monetization tools. FanSided’s staff will join the Minute Media team as part of the acquisition. Terms of the deal are not being disclosed.

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“FanSided’s approach to community and fandom is a perfect complement to Minute Media’s existing properties. FanSided, combined with The Players’ Tribune’s athlete-perspective, provides our readers, partners and advertisers with what we believe to be the most well-rounded and holistic sports digital offering,” said Asaf Peled, Founder and CEO of Minute Media. “We are excited to welcome the FanSided team to the Minute Media family.”

“We are pleased to have found such a great home for FanSided,” said Meredith Chief Development Officer John Zieser. “We are confident Minute Media will leverage its outstanding asset portfolio and technology platform to grow the FanSided network.”

This acquisition represents the fourth purchase for Minute Media over just 18 months. In December, Minute Media announced it would acquire Derek Jeter’s The Players’ Tribune, which follows the company’s acquisition of The Big Lead and Mental Floss.

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“Minute Media will continue to be bullish on the M&A front, bringing premium publishing brands into our portfolio through acquisitions, powering their growth through our proprietary end-to-end publishing platform,” said Peled.

For Meredith, the FanSided transaction is the latest in a series of non-core asset sales at attractive multiples conducted by Meredith following its January 2018 acquisition of Time Inc. Previously, Meredith sold the TIME, FORTUNE, Sports Illustrated, MONEY, Time Inc. UK, and Viant brands.

Herzog Fox & Neeman and Seyfarth Shaw LLP served as legal advisors to Minute Media. Houlihan Lokey (NYSE:HLI) and Chris Russo’s Fifth Generation Sports served as financial advisors to Meredith, and Cooley LLP served as Meredith’s legal advisor.

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