AOL expands video games with GameDaily acquisition

By Stuart Corner
Thursday, 17 August 2006 01:59

Deals

AOL has acquired GameDaily (http://www.gamedaily.com) claimed to be one of the Internet's leading independent video game publications.
AOL bought GameDaily from privately-held Gigex, based in San Francisco, which operated the GameDaily.com website, one of the top three most visited video gaming information destinations on the Web, according to AOL. " GameDaily reaches the coveted demographic of consumers ages 18 to 34, with a reach of more than 4.5 million gamers each month through its flagship property and affiliated partners," AOL claims.

Also included in the acquisition is the GameDaily Biz newsletter (http://Biz.GameDaily.com), the most widely read video game trade publication, according to AOL.

"GameDaily will become the flagship video games brand within the AOL games network, and will be united with content and community features currently found on the AOL Video Games website (http://www.aol.com/videogames)," the company said.

The AOL Video Games editorial team will be integrated into the GameDaily editorial staff to create the new GameDaily editorial team. Some GameDaily content partnership agreements will be transitioned to AOL.

GameDaily is AOL's fourth announced acquisition this year, following the acquisition of Userplane last week, Lightningcast in May and Truveo in January. In 2005 AOL acquired Music Now, Weblogs, Xdrive and Wildseed.