Viacom announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Xfire, the online games tech company, for USD 102 million in cash.
The acquisition makes sense as XFire has grown to a 4 million strong gaming community that uses the software and technologies for instant messaging and social networking. It's no secret that MTV has been targeting gamers more actively in the past few months and Xfire and its users fit squarely into the Company's multiplatform strategy.
Launched in 2004, Xfire has four million registered members who use its software. Its one million active users average 91 hours per month, with an average session length of over three hours. The robust, ad-supported Xfire application supports hundreds of the latest PC games and provides social networking, instant messaging and information for online gamers. In addition, the Xfire application provides traffic to its popular website, featuring forums and gaming downloads.
MTV Networks has already acquired sites such as Neopets, GameTrailers and iFilm among others.
