Flixster just announced that it has acquiredRotten Tomatoes, the popular movie review site, from IGN Entertainment. IGN is a division of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. Flixster is one of the world’s most popular movie communities and currently features about 2.3 billion ratings and reviews from its users. Rumors about this acquisition surfaced in late December, when Kara Swisher first reported that a potential acquisition of Flixster by MySpace would hinge upon a merger of Rotten Tomatoes and Flixster, though Swisher’s sources later argued that the deal would look exactly like the agreement the two companies announced today.
The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
A Natural Fit
Combining Flixster’s user-generated reviews and Rotten Tomatoes, which aggregates reviews from top movie critics, seems like a natural fit. Flixster also has a strong presence on social networks through its Facebook and MySpace apps.
Even before this acquisition, Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes already partnered in some key areas. Critic reviews from Rotten Tomatoes, for example, already appeared on Flixster’s site and in the service’s mobile apps.
According to today’s press release, IGN plans to refocus its efforts on building out its game-related and men’s-lifestyle offerings. Rotten Tomatoes clearly didn’t quite fit into this new focus.
