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Summary
- Gfinity has acquired digital news platform leading online news community for fantasy and sci-fi movies Epicstream
- As per the deal, the esports firm will be monetising all the social media channels of Epicstream
- Two founders of Epicstream are qualified to receive 5 million new ordinary shares of Gfinity
Gfinity Plc (LON:GFIN), the London-headquartered esports solutions provider, announced the acquisition of the digital news platform Epicstream on Monday. Epicstream is a digital media community specialising in content around comic books, video games, television, sci-fi movies, and collectible cards.
The deal in points
- With the acquisition, Gfinity will be entitled to assume the ownership of the Epicstream.com website, along with its published content and social media accounts.
- Gfinity will be monetising all its social media channels that Epicstream as a company boasts of. Epicstream has a considerable position in the social media space with its Facebook group collectively attaining six million likes.
- A major part of Epicstream’s revenue comes through its inhouse and sponsored content which is published on its website, programmatic advertisements, and ecommerce.
- Epicstream’s website has registered a unique visitor count of 600,000 on a monthly basis. The growth trajectory is likely to be supported by the Gfinity team after Epicstream merges with Gfinity.
- The US and Canada are the major markets for Epicstream.com, while its user base in the United Kingdom is growing dramatically. The acquisition of Epicstream by Gfinity is the next step in the latter’s strategic objective of in-house content, which is the next goal of the Gfinity Digital Media (GDM) Group.
- To tap the highly attractive markets in the UK, the US, and Canada, the Gfinity directors have been thinking to deploy search engine optimisation, technology toolkit, and advertising performance optimisation in a bid to push the present numbers and revenues.
- Under the new deal, the two founders of Epicstream are qualified to receive five million new ordinary shares of Gfinity. Out of this kitty, two-thirds of the shares will remain in a lock-in for a year from the issue date.
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- The GDM has registered a monthly user reach of 14 million through its websites in November, up by 16 per cent from the October’s count of 12 million, with the revenues surpassing £275,000 for the first time.
- Gfinity said the Epicstream founders will be entitled to receive an annual payment to the tune of 30 per cent of the total revenues generated via Epicstream’s property in the first two years of operations after the acquisition is complete. However, the yearly payouts are likely to have an upper ceiling and will be payable in annual instalments at the end of each year.
- Epicstream had posted an unaudited revenue of $0.4 million and a net income of$ 0.3 million for the financial year ended 31 December 2019. The unaudited assets came equivalent to $0.1 million as on 31 December 2019. With the Epicstream acquisition, the GDM is targeting to achieve a revenue of nearly £2 million in the present financial year.
Gfinity shares
Following the development, Gfinity shares ended in red on Monday falling by more than 2 per cent. The stocks plunged as much as 2.6 per cent to settle at GBX 3.70 (7 December) from a share price of GBX 3.80 as on 4 December. In the present calendar year, Gfinity shares stand at a gain of a little over 11 per cent following multiple price gains in the recent months.
The stock collapsed 90.09 per cent following the Covid-19 crash to hit an all-time closing low of GBX 0.33 (17 March) from a market price of GBX 3.33 at the beginning of the year on 2 January.
Gfinity Plc (YTD scale)
(Source: EODHD/Others, Thomson Reuters)
