XLMedia acquires US college football news site

Digital performance publisher XLMedia has acquired the business and assets of Saturday Football, a major online publisher of US college football news.

XLMedia said on Thursday that it would purchase Saturday Football, which operates two leading college football media sites and generates approximately 10.0m users per month, for $23.0m in cash and $1.0m in long-term incentive shares.

The AIM-listed firm will pay an upfront consideration of $11.0m in cash, funded from existing cash reserves, while the additional $12.0m will be payable over three years. The founders of SF, who will remain with the business, will receive the long-term incentive shares of XLMedia as detailed below.

XL Media stated that the acquisition of Saturday Football would accelerate its strategy to operate "content rich websites" across attractive growth geographies.

Chief executive Stuart Simms said: "This transaction provides additional operation depth and reach to our sports footprint which we believe is fast becoming a significant growth driver for our business.

"With the forthcoming US College Football season about to commence, the timing of this transaction couldn't be better with our growing US presence ideally positioned to further support the team at Saturday Football Inc."

As of 0930 BST, XLMedia shares were up 3.23% at 64.0p.