Yahoo! to Acquire Rivals.com, a Leading College Online Sports Site

Yahoo! Inc., a leading global Internet company, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Rivals.com, the leading online destination for college and high school sports and recruiting information. The acquisition will significantly expand the community offerings and open publishing capabilities of Yahoo! Sports, which has the most engaged sports audience on Internet. Financial terms were not disclosed.

"Yahoo!'s acquisition of Rivals.com exemplifies Yahoo!'s mission to connect people with their passions, communities and the world's knowledge," said Scott Moore, senior vice president and head of news & information, Yahoo!. "Among the more than half billion people who touch the Yahoo! brand every month, we find that sports fans are among the most passionate. We're now best-positioned to serve this important audience in the U.S."

Rivals.com is a leading online provider of college and high school sports and recruiting information, primarily focused on football and basketball. The acquisition will bring an important addition to Yahoo! giving the company a clear leadership position in some of the most important categories in sports publishing. The locally-driven open publishing network will complement the offerings of Yahoo! Sports, which are currently focused on coverage of national sports stories, as well as fantasy sports games and information. Rivals.com maintains a network of more than 150 individual websites, which attract approximately 2 million fans each month. Because the Rivals.com network also attracts an active community of users on each site, the acquisition will play an important role in building on Yahoo!'s mission to connect its users to their communities.

"With the Yahoo! acquisition, Rivals.com is beginning the next stage in the evolution of our business. We will now have exposure to millions of additional sports fans, as well as marketing, sales and engineering support which were previously unavailable to our company," said Shannon Terry, CEO of Rivals.com. "We are bringing together two of the leading brands in online sports and I look forward to further developing the most vibrant sports community online."

Additionally, Rivals.com is expected to bring new revenue opportunities to Yahoo!'s advertising and subscription businesses, which are currently the key drivers of Rivals.com's business model. Yahoo! believes there are potential growth opportunities in both businesses, given that Rivals.com has established a profitable and growing business model in both of these areas, with little marketing and sales support. For Yahoo! advertisers, Rivals.com reaches a sought-after demographic: an engaged and highly educated consumer. Yahoo! also sees potential in expanding the core demographic of the site to reach a younger demographic through its high school sports offerings.

"The Rivals.com team produces a broad network of college team sites, with communities of fanatical, like-minded enthusiasts around this local content," said James Pitaro, vice president and general manager, Yahoo! Sports. "College sports engagement is primarily driven by community, and adding Rivals.com to Yahoo! Sports creates tremendous opportunities for us to connect our sports fans with the right sports content at the right time."

Source: Yahoo