News Corporation to acquire IGN Entertainment

Rupert Murdoch is taking some big steps with his News Corporation. He has just acquired the IGN Entertainment Inc. for a massive $650 million. IGN Entertainment runs a couple of hugely popular online websites for gamers and the aim is to expand the News Corporation’s internet business by expanding the number of web-based channels they operate.

Some of the popular IGN sites include the reputed GameSpy.com and IGN.com. They also own the popular movies and entertainment related website Rottentomatoes.com. The announcement was made by the two companies in an emailed statement. News Corporation is the world’s forth-largest media company and they would be paying in cash for this acquisition.

The purchase of IGN Entertainment happens to be the third such deal in the last couple of months. The amount of money involved in these purchases goes onto show, how important online presence has become for the media companies traditionally operational through Television channels for News and other aspects.

Rupert Murdoch is aiming for a minimum of 15 percent increase in Web marketing this year. And the acquisition of IGN gives them access to more than 28 million new Web users. Their earlier purchases were pretty impressive as well and the total combined strength of the web sites gives the company access to around 70 million unique monthly users.