The UK parent company of Joe.co.uk has been acquired out of administration.
Greencastle Capital has snapped up JOE media in the UK and also expects to imminently sign a contract for the acquisition of the JOE media Irish business.
That should go through in the next two months, once an Irish Media Merger notification period has expired.
BusinessCloud revealed in May that administrators from KPMG had been seeking a buyer for London-registered Joe Media Limited, which owns Joe.co.uk, the social news website for male millennials with millions of monthly visitors.
JOE media has developed 10 digital lifestyle channels: JOE.uk, JOE.ie, Her.ie, HerFamily.ie, FootballJOE, PoliticsJOE, MMAJOE, SportsJOE, RugbyJOE and ComedyJOE.
Having started as a single website, JOE.co.uk has evolved into an active publisher with distinct media brands and 17 original series. The combined social following of JOE media now stands at over 11 million.
Overall traffic on the Joe family’s websites is around 42m a month while together the businesses generate in excess of £10m of revenue per year.
Greencastle Capital has agreed a rolling annual management services contract with listed firm Iconic Labs, which will manage all operational and commercial aspects of the JOE media businesses for a monthly fee of £50,000 plus external costs.
It will also receive 25% of all profits if certain revenue and profit targets are met. Iconic says it expects the deal will allow it to become operationally profitable within three months.
Paul O’Donohoe, Partner, Greencastle Capital, said: “We are very excited by our acquisition of JOE media, which is one of the most reputable and recognisable digital publishing brands in the UK & Ireland.
“Greencastle Capital, alongside Iconic Labs with its commercial expertise in this space, have plans to invest in this business in a focused way that will ensure its long-term sustainable growth.
“While the UK & Irish companies were separate entities before, the intention, following completion of the acquisition of the Irish business is to combine the two to create one single JOE media business. In combining the two entities, the sheer scale of the UK market makes that the key area for growth opportunity for JOE media.
“However, JOE media is a brand which is Irish to its roots and therefore it is expected that the Irish acquisition company will be the holding company for the structure of the JOE media businesses following completion of the acquisition of the Irish JOE media business, and JOE media’s global headquarters will be in Dublin.
“In the current digital media landscape, we are seeing more opportunities like this to restructure valuable brands such as JOE media to set them up for success and this addition to our portfolio is a major milestone in our plans.”
John Quinlan, Chief Executive Officer of Iconic Labs, said: “We are delighted to have been involved in Greencastle Capital’s successful bid for JOE media, which involved a very competitive sales process among more than 15 different bidders.”