14th March
2025
Digitalbox
plc
("Digitalbox", the "Company" or the "Group")
Acquisition of the assets of
Media Chain Group Limited
Digitalbox plc (AIM: DBOX), the
mobile-first digital media business, which owns Entertainment
Daily, The Daily Mash, The Tab, The Poke, TV Guide, Emmerdale
Insider, Royal Insider, and Reality Shrine is pleased to announce
it has exchanged contracts (the "Exchange") to acquire the digital
assets of The Life Network from Media Chain Group Limited for a
total consideration of £200,000 (the "Consideration", together the
"Acquisition"). The Acquisition is subject to completion of
satisfactory testing by Digitalbox, as set out below, and is
expected to be earnings enhancing on completion.
About Media Chain Group Limited
Media Chain Group Limited was
previously part of the broader Social Chain business established in
Manchester in 2014. Social Chain became part of The Social Chain AG
business in 2019 and operated in two divisions, an agency that was
sold in the spring of 2023 and the media division (Media Chain
Group Limited) that houses 20+ social pages with over 60m
followers.
The
Acquisition
The Acquisition provides Digitalbox
with the opportunity to extend its audience reach through The Life
Network's 5.6m Facebook followers and 357k Instagram followers. The
assets made losses of £400 in 2024 after all activity was paused on
them in the middle of the year. The combined follower base is
expected to add almost 6m to the 21m currently owned by
Digitalbox.
Completion of the Acquisition is
conditional upon the satisfactory testing, by Digitalbox, through a
licence agreement which is in operation until mid-June 2025. The
total Consideration for the Acquisition to be paid is £200,000,
with £20,000 payable immediately on Exchange as a non-refundable
deposit to trigger the license, and a further £180,000
conditionally payable on completion - which is anticipated to be
within three months from the date of Exchange.
The Consideration will be funded
from the Group's existing cash resources, which at 31 December 2025
were approximately £2.1 million. The Acquisition will be undertaken
via Digitalbox Publishing Limited, which is wholly owned by the
Company.
The directors expect that the
Acquisition will be earnings enhancing at the point the Digitalbox
management team chooses to advance to Completion.
James Carter, CEO, Digitalbox, said:
"The opportunity to acquire some of the Media
Chain Group assets is an excellent way for us to extend the
audiences currently being served by the Digitalbox brands. With The
Life Network containing a significant female US audience footprint,
we believe there are plenty of synergies to build around our new
site, Royal Insider, which is already presenting traction in this
market. The management team will get to work straight away on
proving this case before Completion."
Christian Grobel, CEO, Media Chain Group Limited,
said: "We are pleased to be offering
these assets to a great home. The audience bases we have built will
complement the Digitalbox portfolio and benefit from the Company's
talented editorial teams. We wish them the best of luck with the
next stage of development for their brands."
END
Market abuse regulation: This
announcement contains inside information for the purposes of
Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 as it forms part of UK
domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018
("MAR").
Enquiries:
Digitalbox
|
c/o SEC Newgate
|
James Carter, CEO
|
|
Panmure Liberum (Nominated Adviser & Joint
Broker)
|
Tel: 020 7886 2500
|
James Sinclair-Ford
|
|
Rupert Dearden
Dougie McLeod
Rauf Munir
|
|
Leander Capital Partners (Joint
Broker)
|
Tel: 07786150915
|
Alex Davies
|
|
SEC
Newgate (Financial PR)
|
Tel: 07540 106 366
|
Robin Tozer / Molly
Gretton
|
digitalbox@secnewgate.co.uk
|
About Digitalbox plc
Based in the UK, Digitalbox is a
'pure-play' digital media business with the aim of profitable
publishing at scale on mobile platforms.
Digitalbox operates the following
trading brands, "Entertainment Daily", "The Daily Mash", "The Tab",
"The Poke", "TV Guide", "Emmerdale Insider", "Royal Insider" and
"Reality Shrine", Entertainment Daily produces and publishes online
UK entertainment news covering TV, showbiz and celebrity news. The
Daily Mash produces and publishes satirical news content. The Tab
is the UK's biggest youth culture site fuelled by students. The
Poke expertly curates and editorialises the funniest content from
around the web and social media. TV Guide serves as the definitive
guide to what is on TV. Emmerdale Insider charts the twists and
turns of this ever present British soap staple. Royal Insider
provides the latest information for royal family fans the world
over. Reality Shrine documents the latest twists and turns from the
world's biggest reality TV shows.
Digitalbox primarily generates
revenue from the sale of advertising in and around the content it
publishes. The Group's optimisation for mobile enables it to
achieve revenues per session significantly ahead of market norms
for publishers on mobile.