Flixster For Sale; IAC Interested
Michael Arrington
41 comments »
Fast growing movie-centered social network Flixster has been making the rounds with potential buyers, we’ve heard from multiple sources. And IAC may have submitted a letter of intent in the last week or so.
The San Francisco based company has had a meteoric rise since launching in January 2006, although Comscore suggests growth has stagnated over the last few months - worldwide unique visitors went from just over 12 million in May 2007 to just 8.4 million in September, a drop of about 30%. Compete and Alexa show a similar decline beginning in May, but with a subsequent full recovery and then some.
IAC’s offer, we’ve heard, may value the company at $150 million. However, IAC has a tendency to do complicated investment deals where they get a minority or majority stake in the business v. an outright acquisition. They own a majority stake College Humor/Vimeo (same parent company) and GarageGames, and a minority stake (rumored at 25%) in iLike through an investment by subsidiary Ticketmaster.
Flixster may not be very interested in a partial buyout, but interest from IAC could lead others to enter a bid, too. More on this as it develops.
Fixster? Fix post title, please…
Please remove this Crunchbase information block… it ruins the entire layout and it makes the RSS feed look ridiculous. *Please* return back to the simple linking to the site.
P)lease link directly to the website.
I for one really like the CrunchBase information block. Write a greasemonkey script if it annoys you so much.
I like the CrunchBase block, but could it minimize by default for those who dislike it?
Kyle - yeah, we are going to have a minimize button that’s cookie based, so it will go away for people who don’t want it. #3 - no idea what you are talking about.
Mike - I think this is what #3 means here - when putting up links for the companies you mention - take the user directly to the website - not a Crunch Base database - as a regular reader of Techcrunch that extra click is annoying - one which has stopped me from clicking on anything on your site. You would serve readers better if you just had a separate tab / link for Crunchbase featured prominently on Techcrunch. A suggeston - but it is your talk show!
I’d have to agree, Mike…that link to crunchbase is annoying.
if we click on the link, we expect it to take us to that site - not some intermediary
Good piece of Info
http://tekno-world.blogspot.com
I’m looking for New Netflix
My friend had Netflix. He told me Netflix sucks… People couldn’t do their job — “Late shipping.” They are killing popcorn and entertainment. I had to watch sports.
I’m looking for new startup that ships DVD ten times faster Netflix. I want super fast DVD shipping like Sportscar. I don’t want grandma’s Car that ships late DVDs.
Please let techcrunch users know.
I want speedy and competitive market. I want new NETFLIX startup.
I don’t want Blockbuster & Netflix quality.
I like to see TV ads! Please just kill these two companies. Drive these guys insane. I want fast DVD shipping…
HELP ME!!!!
@10
The biggest cost for NetFlix is the shipping fees of DVDs. They spend a lot of time data-mining their users that frequently use their service and incur the most in shipping costs, to “slow/throttle” down their user.
If you want to build a better NetFlix, build a better way to mail DVDs to people. This is probably why they’re jumping into the streaming/on-demand business.
I’m looking for New Netflix too.
my flickr groups:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/iphone-download/
Looks like all new deals are happening at 100 Million Plus levels.
http://www.meetingflex.com
Video + Social Networking
Me too. I want new netflix. There is no DVD shipping on saturdays.
I hope someone create new netflix idea.
Free another Apple TV box for user & drop next netflix today.
Low cost movie.
Super fast movie stream.
No more internet movie stream for one viewer.
Faster than Netflix DVD.
Cheaper than Cable.
Better than Directv PPV.
Cheap. Easy to use. Hook up telephone.
Entertainment for whole family.
http://www.google.com/search?h.....tflix+slow
I guess 1,400,000 want to switch to new netflix.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2006.....h-netflix/
I hope Michael Arrington invest new netflix startup.
“They own a majority stake College Humor/Vimeo (same parent company) and GarageGames”
http://www.garagegames.com/my/.....?qid=52582
I’ve been a member since May 2005. I don’t see a whole lot of new stuff from them though.
Yep, an interest from IAC would pull in more interested parties. But, seriously, is flixter that attractive? :O
I personally like Spout (http://www.spout.com/) better. I can’t believe that Flixster (http://www.flixster.com/) has 1 billion movie ratings!
Flixster = spammer
Just to confirm that the deal structure above (IAC picks up 51% of the company and then grabs the rest 2-3 years later) is entirely standard for them. They do a LOT of deals this way that nobody ever hears about (since it’s not a full acquisition up front… or at the call date).
You mean IAC *was* interested… after they read this, they’ll probably forget their intent.
You can actually minimize the widget now - use the button in the top right corner. It will remember your preference, too.
I’d say that comcast will buy them, as they just did with Fandango.
Yep, you can minimize the widget and I think Mike or someone wrote something earlier in the week about linking directly to companies instead of to Crunchbase. As far as I’ve seen, they’ve followed through.
Flixster has always felt like what would happen if Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB had kids. Smart as a whip but a little bit homely. It will be interesting to see what type of acquisitions that IAC arranges.
As for the Netflix argument, they have fallen into the shipping trap. Until someone finds a way to reduce the incremental costs of shipping a single DVD back and forth, the service will always be less than ideal.
Hi guys especially Mr. Michael Arrington I posted something on my celebrity/news blog and I want to know if it’s true. Forbes reported that Glam.com is the fastest growing property on the web. Is that true? They say that it is growing faster than Myspace, YouTube, and Facebook. Is this accurate? http://mediaoutrage.com/2007/1.....-facebook/
Thanks.
@mediaoutrage - according to comscore it’s true.
hmmm, I could out buy these guys with no sweat, but would this purchase make people think we are on the leading edge? hmmm
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
Thanks anonymouse I will check comscore now. Thanks.
Sorry this is unrelated, but I just saw this headline on drudgereport.com:
“HULU.COM: GE/NEWSCORP SITE SET FOR LIFTOFF… DEVELOPING…”
That’s like a big deal, and would generate tons of traffic. Matt Drudge = the new Michael Arrington! But seriously, this is interesting that hulu is getting publicity through conservative news.
They grew fast with email spam.
They, or users, even created loads of fake profiles to pump up the numbers. For example, there are profiles with thousands and thousands of reviews from a 16 year old, who had to have watched movies during every waking day since birth.
@31. Interesting to see that a company that built itself from Spamming is getting valuations of 150M.
Lets you know that you really can’t get anywhere these days being on the straight and narrow.
IMDB > Flixster
Spout > Flixster.com
@33: Yeah IMDB is a much better resource for movie info (much better reviews and less kids just talking crap), but they need to get with the times. IMDB do not even keep trailers hosted on their site…talk about cheap.
Flixster, goodness these people are imaginative with names.
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
Have you guys heard of FilmCrave.com? Similar to spout and flixster I guess but maybe easier to use???