Acquisition of assets from Social Chain AG

Digitalbox PLC

01 August 2023

 

1 August 2023

Digitalbox plc

("Digitalbox", the "Company" or the "Group")

Acquisition of the assets of Media Chain Group Limited

Digitalbox plc (AIM: DBOX), the mobile-first digital media business, which owns Entertainment Daily, The Daily Mash, The Tab, and The Poke is pleased to announce it has exchanged contracts (the "Exchange") to acquire the digital assets of 99 Problems, Student Problems and The Life Network Shopping from Media Chain Group Limited (part of "Social Chain AG") for a total consideration of $800,000 (the "Consideration", together the "Acquisition"). The Acquisition is subject to completion of satisfactory testing by Digitalbox, as set out below, and is expected to be immediately earnings enhancing on completion.

About Media Chain Group Limited

Media Chain Group Limited was previously part of the broader Social Chain business established in Manchester in 2014. Social Chain became part of The Social Chain AG business in 2019 and operated in two divisions, an agency that was sold in the spring of 2023 and the media division (Media Chain Group Limited) that houses 20+ social pages with over 60m followers.

The Acquisition

The transaction provides Digitalbox with the opportunity to extend its audience reach through the 99 Problems 10m Facebook followers, Student Problems 1.4m Tik Tok followers and the The Life Shopping Network 1m Facebook followers. The combined follower bases will more than double the number currently owned by Digitalbox at approximately 8m Facebook followers.

Completion of the Acquisition is conditional upon the satisfactory testing, by Digitalbox, through a licence agreement which is in operation until the end of November 2023. The total Consideration for the Acquisition to be paid is $800,000, with $79,000 payable immediately on Exchange as a non-refundable deposit to trigger the license term through a single $1,000 fee, and a further $720,000 payable on completion - which is anticipated to be within two to five months from the date of Exchange - through a deferred payment of $520,000 in cash and $200,000 in Digitalbox ordinary shares ("Completion").

The Consideration will be funded from the Group's existing cash resources, which at 28 July 2023 were approximately £2.4 million. The Acquisition is being undertaken via Digitalbox Publishing Limited, which is wholly owned by the Company.

The Acquisition is expected to be immediately earnings enhancing at the point the Digitalbox management team choose to advance to Completion.

James Carter, CEO, Digitalbox, said: "The opportunity to acquire some of the Media Chain Group assets is an excellent way for us to explore significantly extending the audiences currently being served by the Digitalbox brands. With 99 Problems having started life as a social page called Student Problems, we believe there are plenty of synergies to build around The Tab whilst there is very strong common ground between Entertainment Daily's audience and those who follow The Life Shopping Network. The management team will get to work straight away on proving this case before Completion."

Christian Grobel, CEO, Media Chain Group Limited, said: "We are pleased to be offering these assets to a great home. The audience bases we have built will complement the Digitalbox portfolio and benefit from the Company's talented editorial departments. We wish them the best of luck with the next stage of development for their brands."

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Market abuse regulation: This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 as it forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("MAR").

Enquiries:

Digitalbox	c/o SEC Newgate
James Carter, CEO
Panmure Gordon (Nominated Adviser, Financial Adviser & Joint Broker)	Tel: [phone]
James Sinclair-Ford (Corporate Advisory)
Rupert Dearden (Corporate Broking)
Leander Capital Partners (Joint Broker)	Tel: [phone]
Alex Davies / Hugh Kingsmill Moore
SEC Newgate (Financial Communications)	Tel: [phone]
Robin Tozer / Moly Gretton	[e-mail]

About Digitalbox plc

Based in the UK, Digitalbox is a 'pure-play' digital media business with the aim of profitable publishing at scale on mobile platforms.

Digitalbox operates the trading brands of "Entertainment Daily", "The Daily Mash", "The Tab", and "The Poke". 

Entertainment Daily produces and publishes online UK entertainment news covering TV, showbiz and celebrity news. The Daily Mash produces and publishes satirical news content. The Tab is the UK's biggest youth culture site fuelled by students.  The Poke expertly curates and editorialises the funniest content from around the web and social media.

Digitalbox primarily generates revenue from the sale of advertising in and around the content it publishes. The Company's optimisation for mobile enables it to achieve revenues per session significantly ahead of market norms for publishers on mobile.

 

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