MegaStar sold to Sport.com

by Claire Billings, Brand Republic 01-May-01, 14:00

LONDON - United Business Media has sold one of its last remaining consumer websites, MegaStar.co.uk, to sports and data website Sports.com in a deal believed to be worth less than £100,000.

The deal sees the former ITV company move a step closer to realising its ambition of focusing on its business-to-business operations.

The former website of tabloid newspaper the Daily Star was retained by United when it sold the red-top, with Express Newspapers, to Richard Desmond last November.

The new buyer hopes to tap into MegaStar's audience of mainly young men looking for photos of glamorous women and draw them to its sports and betting offering. MegaStar attracts 14m page impressions a month and more than 500,000 unique users.

"The audience for MegaStar is highly complementary to our 3m visitors a month," said Tom Jessiman, managing director of sports.com. "This acquisition will lead to diversifying our revenue streams even further, which will enable us to move more rapidly towards profitability."

United is also looking for a buyer for its dotmusic.com website. Emap and Ministry of Sound are understood to be interested in buying the product.