NBCUniversal’s Stealth MCN Acquisition -- Fandango Acquires ZEFR’s Movieclips

I have written continuously about continuous major strategic moves (including several acquisitions) in the MCN space during the past month (including my “who’s next?”-esque post from yesterday in which I handicap the most intriguing remaining independent MCNs -- and prominently highlight hot LA-based ZEFR).

Well, yesterday, in a deal that flew somewhat under the radar, ZEFR was at the center of yet another MCN acquisition.  Specifically, NBCUniversal’s movie ticketing site Fandango acquired ZEFR's 25 YouTube channels that include 45,000 curated film clips, trailers and original videos (and which have 7 million subs that average 200 million monthly YouTube views).  As I wrote again yesterday, ZEFR is not a typical MCN because its core business are tools to optimize and monetize YouTube content.  But, given Movieclips multiple YouTube channels (25 of them) -- and significant monthly numbers -- it absolutely can be considered to be an MCN in its own right.  And, ZEFR’s divestiture of that non-core MCN business underscores that the company itself most certainly does not consider itself to be an MCN.

Whatever the semantics may be -- since there is no one right definition for the term “MCN” (and no two MCNs are the same) -- make no mistake.  ZEFR itself is one of the hottest SoCal-based digital media companies and will be acquired outright in the next 12-18 months.

Anyone care to bet against that?  If so, send me a note via LinkedIn and lay out the case.  I will post it here in my blog -- kind of like the “Point/Counter-point” of the 60 Minutes of old.