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Friday, January 2, 2004 IGN and GameSpy Announce Merger Agreement IGN Entertainment -- home to IGN.com, a gaming and entertainment website for young males -- and GameSpy Industries, an online entertainment and technology company serving game enthusiasts and game developers, announced that they have signed a definitive merger agreement. According to comScore NetScore data, the two networks combined attract more than 22 million unique visitors per month worldwide. "This combination offers tremendous synergies as GameSpy and IGN have very complementary strengths," said Mark Jung, IGN's CEO. "GameSpy is the market leader with the PC game audience, game downloads and online gaming technology. IGN is the market leader with the console game audience and in community services such as message boards. Both companies have very strong subscription acquisition and retention programs." Mr. Jung will serve the new company as CEO, and Mr. Surfas will serve as the Chief Strategy Officer and will join Mr. Jung on the Board of Directors. Because of their distinct audiences and strong loyalties, both the IGN.com and GameSpy.com brands will be retained. The companies expect to complete the merger in the first half of 2004. "Combining IGN and GameSpy will create value for both our audience and our clients," said Mark Surfas, founder and chairman of GameSpy. "For the gamer, this merger will provide the broadest array of information, services and content choices. For game publishers and advertisers, it creates a platform with the widest reach and the deepest set of marketing tools to target gamers and young men in general." IGN Entertainment, through its IGN.com network, is an information and entertainment destination for teen and young adult gamers. IGN serves its audience by providing both free and subscription-based content, services and gameplay. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, with sales offices in New York and Los Angeles. The GameSpy network includes GameSpy.com, FilePlanet.com and GameSpyArcade.com, more than 60 Planet community sites and 7,000+ hosted sites. Founded in 1995, privately held GameSpy is headquartered in Irvine, Calif. Related Links: · IGN.com · GameSpy Click here to return to the homepage of The Write NewsTM Click here to subscribe to our free weekly email newsletter. www.writenews.com Copyright © 1997-2011 by Writers Write, Inc. All Rights Reserved.