Time Warner Inc’s Warner Bros division is paying about $80 million for the Flixster movie application and related Rotten Tomatoes website.
As part of the deal, Time Warner may pay an additional $20 million in bonuses aimed at retaining Flixster Inc’s top executives, said the people, who asked not to be named because the terms of the deal weren’t made public.
The acquisition is intended to give Time Warner customers a place to store the digital movies or TV shows they buy or rent. The sites would be part of Warner’s “Digital Everywhere” application that lets consumers store content and view it on devices connected through the UltraViolet format endorsed by several studios, the company said yesterday in a statement.
Time Warner plans to make more acquisitions as it expands its digital delivery and marketing ability, Kevin Tsujihara, president of Burbank, California-based Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group, said in an interview.
“There is a sense of urgency about helping the consumer to transition to digital,” he said. “This will not be the last announcement that we make.”
