An online video service owned and operated by animation specialist DreamWorks is getting a partner. Hearst Corporation’s acquisition price spells asset appreciation.
We don’t mean that Hearst appreciates its new investment; we mean that the value of the asset has appreciated since DreamWorks bought it.
According to the Associated Press, the acquisition price of AwesomenessTV about a year and a half ago was $100M.
Hearst is paying close that much — $81.25M – for a 25% stake.
That projects to a new asset value of about $325M.
The web portal connects teens with video content. Hearst sees it as an investment in the future. “Few companies have built the global audience of millennial females as quickly as AwesomenessTV,” said Steven R. Swartz, president and CEO of Hearst Corporation. “For us, it’s very important to make a bet on the future of how content is created. Together, in partnership with DreamWorks, we see great opportunity in supporting the consumer media franchise that AwesomenessTV continues to build.”
The service has shown rapid growth in its two years of existence, attracting an average of 800 million views per month and building a subscriber base of 114 million.
