The Client

A leading action sports publishing house and media company with more than 30 years of brand heritage had developed a portfolio of online publications including hugely popular cycling titles and boasting 5.3 million webpage views per month and circa 6.7 million social media followers across its publication brands.

The Assignment

We were instructed by Chamberlain & Co, to assist in the Company’s insolvency proceedings by identifying, marketing and selling the Company’s IP assets. Time was of the essence to ensure brand value and customer loyalty was preserved, we therefore acted quickly to launch a marketing process and gathered offers within a two-week timeframe.

Our Approach

Despite having restricted access to Company staff, our Metisology® approach enabled us to identify the IP assets which had been critical to revenue generation and competitive advantage.

We marketed a bundle of IP rights, including decades of goodwill in corporate and product brands, registered trademarks and a portfolio of domains and web content, which we believed could enable a relaunch of this business. We demonstrated to buyers that immediate cash flows could be earned by quickly relaunching this established online media business. We launched an intensive marketing campaign to a targeted database of 1.5k potential buyers and to our proprietary database of almost 4k, who are known and viable IP acquirers and advisors.

The Outcome

We supported numerous buyer due diligence enquiries, received in excess of 30 offers, created competitive tension and secured an uplift of 175% on the initial best offer.

Taking quick action on this IP sale, resulted in the ultimate purchaser retaining key members of staff, allowed a smooth transition of ownership and facilitated a relaunch of this popular international action-sports brand, with minimal interruption to customer service.

IP Assets Sold – Brands & Trade Marks, Domain Portfolio, Web Content, Database