American Momentous Entertainment Group (MEG) has agreed to buy the company behind German student social network StudiVZ and its sister network MeinVZ for $10 million in preferred stock.
The deal marks the third acquisition in eight years for the social network. It was acquired by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group in 2007 for €85 million and then by financiers Michael Pope and Adam Levin for an undisclosed amount in 2012.
"This is a significant acquisition that allows us to target the German speaking market with our expanding entertainment content library," said Momentous CEO, Kurt Neubauer, in a statement. "Additionally, we are committed to relaunching the web and mobile platforms to increase user engagement and retention, expand the video features and add capabilities to attract a younger audience."
StudiVZ is a social network for university students in Europe that was founded in Berlin in 2005 and received capital from Lukasz Gadowski, Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group and the Samwer brothers. The name StudiVZ is an abbreviation of the German expression for "student directory." While it, and its network for non-students, MeinVZ, have seen a massive decline in usage since 2009, they still have around 10 million users and reach 45 million page impressions per month, largely in the German-speaking countries of Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
"We are happy that studiVZ and meinVZ will find a new home with the Momentous Group, who will provide the necessary resources to improve and grow the platforms," said Michael Pope, Chief Operating Officer at StudiVZ. "Although the German social media landscape is competitive, Momentous has an advantage with its ability to quickly produce, source and deliver engaging content."
In a news release issued last July, Momentous stated it would provide entertainment content to Poolworks social media sites, studiVZ and meinVZ. The Company would deploy a Momentous online branded network with a full end-to-end OTT streaming service.
Read more: Gruenderszene (German), Marketwired (press release)
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