Digitalbox agrees to acquire TVGuide.co.uk

Digital media business Digitalbox has exchanged contracts to acquire the web and mobile platform assets of TVGuide.co.uk for £550,000 in cash.

Digitalbox said on Monday that completion of the acquisition was conditional upon the satisfactory upgrade of the TVGuide.co.uk website as part of a platform redevelopment.

The AIM-listed firm will pay £20,000 immediately on exchange in order to trigger the platform redevelopment, with a further £350,000 payable on completion, which it expects to take place within three to six months from the date of exchange, while a further deferred payment of £180,000 will follow four months after the completion date.

The consideration will be funded from the group's existing cash resources, which at 24 May sat at approximately £2.8m.

Digitalbox, which expects the acquisition to be immediately earnings enhancing, will see certain services acquired from TVGuide.co.uk be renamed to Yo.tv.

Chief executive James Carter said: "The acquisition of TVGuide.co.uk is another excellent addition to our growing portfolio of digital assets. It is an exciting business with considerable potential and an established brand.

"Following the acquisitions of The Daily Mash and The Tab, we have an established process of integrating assets onto our Graphene platform, and we are confident we can quickly grow the site's revenue and increase its profitability."

As of 0825 BST, Digitalbox shares were up 4.44% at 9.40p.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com