Enthusiast Gaming (EGLX.T) has closed the previous-announced acquisition of Vedatis SAS, which owns Icy Veins, for €7,000,000 in cash and stock, plus an earn-out subject to certain conditions.
Ah, yes. Icy Veins, the gaming worlds equivalent to the Library of Alexandria. Icy Veins held my hand every step of the way as I trudged through the grim landscape of Diablo 3, a dungeon crawler roleplaying game (RPG). With Icy Vein’s limitless knowledge, I was able to create a devastating Wizard, capable of clearing rooms in a single spell. Ahem. Instead of going off on a nerdy nostalgia trip, I should probably explains what Icy Veins is and why Enthusiast Gaming’s latest acquisition is an important one.
Icy Veins, owned by Vedatis SAS, is a website dedicated to providing gamers with guides and news related to popular Blizzard Entertainment games like World of Warcraft, Diablo 3, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, and Overwatch. The website itself is fairly easy to navigate and is constantly updated with the latest guides to help players achieve certain goals whether its getting the best loot, clearing dungeons, or even just learning. Additionally, Icy Veins keeps players in the loop with frequent news updates related patch notes and content releases as well as news pertaining to the site as a whole.
Did I mention that Icy Veins is one of the largest independent fan communities for Activision Blizzard, parent company to Blizzard Entertainment? The site was founded in 2011 by Damien Thivolle and Vlad-Matei Mladin. Since then, Icy Veins has generated over 3 billion lifetime views of content through its various strategy guides and news. With this in mind, this acquisition is expected to bolster Enthusiast Gaming’s revenue and margins. Furthermore, by acquiring Icy Veins, the Company now has the opportunity for increased monetization through its flywheel, which includes YouTube channels, subscriptions, content licensing, and ecommerce.
Referring back to the aforementioned earn-out, vendors are eligible to an earn-out payment equal to the sum of EBIDTA of the purchased business for the four best consecutive calendar quarterly periods within sixteen consecutive quarterly periods. However, this excludes additional business generated by Enthusiast Gaming henceforth. For a nerd like me, it makes me happy to see a site as valuable as Icy Veins picked up by Enthusiast Gaming, a company focused on unifying the gaming community. Additionally, Icy Veins will surely prove to be a profitable revenue stream for the Company in the future.
Enthusiast Gaming’s share price opened at $10.06, up from a previous close of $9.92. The Company’s share price has since dropped to $9.74 as of 11:59AM ET.
