Skybound Leisure, the multiplatform studio behind world franchises like The Strolling Lifeless and lots of of further IP, introduced the acquisition of Maple Media from Shamrock Capital.
Maple Media is a pacesetter in cellular app publishing and boasts a various portfolio of “Prime 10” apps throughout productiveness, leisure, and way of life classes which has generated over 600 million lifetime downloads.
The acquisition value was not disclosed.
Acquisitions have gotten the norm in gaming. However that is the form of factor you are able to do in case you personal The Strolling Lifeless franchise, which debuted as a comic book e-book by creator Robert Kirkman in 2003. It’s the most profitable unique leisure franchise created this century, in accordance Hernan Lopez, founding father of Owl & Co. Skybound additionally owns Influence Winter and Invincible.
The video games alone have generated greater than $1 billion in revenues, and the Netlix present drew 1.3 billion viewing hours in 2023, Lopez mentioned in an interview with GamesBeat. And through that 12 months it was the third-most watched TV sequence — 13 years after the TV present launched. In 2010, Kirkman began Skybound Leisure with David Alpert.
This acquisition enhances Skybound’s attain by including Maple Media’s steady, recurring income and subscriber base, proprietary app administration expertise, and direct relationships with shoppers. Maple Media’s apps and providers are an integral a part of thousands and thousands of person’s month-to-month routines for getting issues accomplished and having enjoyable, which extends Skybound’s viewers, client attain and engagement.
Moreover, partnering with Maple Media facilitates a direct relationship between Skybound and shoppers, enhancing Skybound’s skill to deliver unbelievable content material instantly from creators to followers.
Maple Media’s experience in cellular app operations and optimization helps Skybound’s mission to ship compelling tales throughout each platform and medium, from comics and video games to tv, cellular gadgets and past.
“Bringing Maple Media into the Skybound universe is a game-changer,” mentioned David Alpert, CEO of Skybound Leisure, in a press release. “This allows us to fluidly join our nice IP on to our viewers. We sit up for constructing and increasing these alternatives with Michael Ritter, Founder and CEO, David Bos, COO, and the remainder of the Maple Media staff, because the partnership strengthens our skill to attach content material on to audiences like by no means earlier than. Collectively, we’re unlocking new methods to ship for our creators and followers whereas staying true to our mission of placing them first.”
By integrating Maple Media’s staff, skilled leisure trade executives, and its strong suite of instruments, Skybound is positioned to scale its cellular presence whereas exploring new leisure functions, leveraging Maple Media’s podcast, recreation, and content material distribution capabilities, amongst others.
“We’re thrilled to affix the Skybound Leisure household and produce our experience in cellular apps to an organization that shares our ardour for partaking and significant content material,” mentioned Michael Ritter, CEO and founding father of Maple Media, in a press release. “This partnership not solely strengthens Maple Media’s skill to scale and innovate but additionally opens up thrilling new alternatives to combine Skybound’s iconic IP into the cellular area. Collectively, we sit up for creating distinctive, impactful experiences for thousands and thousands of customers worldwide.”
Skybound is the creator-driven, fan-focused firm behind landmark world franchises like The Strolling Lifeless, Invincible, Influence Winter and lots of extra IPs which can be redefining leisure by way of its Wheel of Superior enterprise mannequin.
Skybound unlocks the distinctive alternative to domesticate all facets of a franchise from improvement by way of distribution; our IP connects with audiences by way of groundbreaking tales instructed on a grand scale. We empower our creators to instantly develop their IP and switch their concepts into films, TV reveals, tabletop video games, comics, podcasts, collectibles, video video games, or the entire above after which some.
Shamrock Capital is a Los Angeles-based funding agency with roughly $6.4 billion of belongings beneath administration. Shamrock Capital invests completely in media, leisure, communications, and associated sectors by way of a multi-fund technique centered on non-public fairness investments, in addition to possession and financing of content material and media rights. The agency was initially based in 1978 because the household funding firm for the late Roy E. Disney and has since advanced into an institutionally backed agency with a number one group of traders, together with endowments, foundations, and sovereign wealth and pension funds.
Disclosure: I’ve household working at Skybound.
