San Francisco and Boston - August 28, 2003 - IGN Entertainment (Nasdaq: IGNX)- home to IGN.com®, the web's largest information and entertainment destination for video gamers - and Great Hill Partners, LLC, a Boston-based private equity firm, today announced the completion of a "going private" merger transaction in which stockholders of IGN Entertainment accepted an offer of $12 in cash (without interest) for each outstanding share of IGN common stock they own. As a result of the merger, IGN is now majority-owned by Great Hill Partners, with Chris Anderson, Mark Jung and Ken Keller (IGN's Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Vice President of Engineering, respectively) continuing as stockholders of the company surviving the merger. Mr. Jung will also continue to serve as CEO. Great Hill Partners and IGN management provided all funding for the transaction. Trading in the company's common stock on the NASDAQ SmallCap Market has officially ended, and IGN Entertainment is no longer a public company.
"IGN enjoys a leadership position in the interactive entertainment space, and we are excited to use our resources to help the company capitalize on market opportunities to further expand its business," said Christopher Gaffney, a managing partner of Great Hill Partners.
"I believe that becoming a private company will give IGN the capital resources and strategic freedom necessary to pursue our long-term growth objectives," said Mark Jung, IGN's CEO. "Great Hill has a solid history of investing in technology and media companies, and their financial and strategic resources will support our efforts to become the dominant source of information and entertainment for the ever-expanding gaming and interactive entertainment community."
Registered stockholders of IGN common stock will receive a notice shortly from Mellon Investor Services, LLC, the company's payment agent, instructing them how to exchange their certificates for consideration. Stockholders who own their shares through a broker should contact their broker for information pertaining to the offer.
About IGN Entertainment
IGN Entertainment, through its IGN.com® network, is the Internet's leading 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. IGN's award winning content - two Webby People's Voice Awards and two Wired Magazine's Readers Raves Awards - attracts more than eight million unique visitors a month, including over 5.8 million registered users and 80,000 paying subscribers. IGN offers its business customers a full spectrum of integrated marketing solutions to reach this large web-centric audience. These products include fixed placement and impression-based advertising, sponsorships, permission marketing, custom publishing, e-commerce, direct e-mail marketing and content licensing. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, with sales offices in New York and Los Angeles. For more information, please visit www.ign.com
About Great Hill Partners
Great Hill Partners is a private equity firm that manages over $1 billion in capital and focuses on investing in companies in education, business services, media, information, IT, and communications sectors. Great Hill Partners is currently investing its $460 million fund, Great Hill Equity Partners II, L.P., and is targeting investments of $10 million to $50 million. For more information, please visit www.greathillpartners.com.
