National Lampoon Acquires Rivalfish.Com
National Lampoon, Inc. (AMEX:NLN), the most widely recognized brand in comedy, today announced that it has acquired the website, and retains an option to purchase the licensing division, of Rivalfish (www.rivalfish.com), the #1 college sports rivalry brand, for an undisclosed sum.
Prior to the acquisition, Rivalfish was part of the National Lampoon Humor Network, the number one humor destination on the web, as ranked by ComScore. This acquisition follows the recent acquisitions of College Hangover (www.CollegeHangover.com) and Drunk University (www.DrunkUniversity.com), as National Lampoon continues to grow its portfolio of wholly owned web properties.
“Rivalfish has quickly emerged as a favorite destination for sports fans in the National Lampoon Humor Network, and is a natural fit with our fast growing sports focused blog, NationalLampoonSplog.com,” said National Lampoon Chief Executive Officer Daniel Laikin. “We are excited to expand our relationship with Rivalfish as we increase the range of content we offer our fans online and continue to grow National Lampoon’s web presence. The sports focused comedy space is a quickly growing revenue generating area for us.”
Rivalfish.com was founded in 2004 by three college sports fanatics who shared a passion for finding success at other people’s expense. The merchandising and licensing division of Rivalfish offers products including hoodies, t-shirts and magnets for die-hard fans. Rivalfish allows buyers to customize the Rivalfish logo with their own teams and then place it on their choice of merchandise, giving each fan the chance to wear their colors with pride.
Rivalfish cofounder Michael Raspatello commented, “We’re fully confident that National Lampoon will have no problem taking the Rivalfish brand of culture and satirical chauvinism farther than any mother would ever approve!”
Rivalfish.com also hosts the site’s online magazine “The Rival Room,” which delivers daily bulletins on sports, humor, music and pop culture. The site also features Rivalfish’s “Fish Fry,” a web TV show with a monthly video podcast and roast of all things sports, hosted by Rivalfish founders Jack Storm and Slam Jackson.
Rivalfish.com has been featured in publications such as Sports Illustrated, USA Today and The Chicago Sun Times. The site’s founding partners were also profiled in Entrepreneur Magazine’s Hot List Issue.
About National Lampoon
National Lampoon, Inc. (AMEX: NLN) has been a dominant force in the US comedy world for almost 40 years, and is currently active in a broad array of media and entertainment segments. These include feature films, television programming, online and interactive entertainment, home video, audio, and book publishing. The Company also owns interests in all major National Lampoon properties, including National Lampoon’s Animal House, the National Lampoon Vacation series and National Lampoon’s Van Wilder. National Lampoon reaches nearly one in four of all 18- to 24-year-old college students in America today. The Company has three core operating divisions: National Lampoon Films, which includes production along with theatrical and video distribution of feature films; College Marketing Division; and National Lampoon Networks, providing humor content through a number of platforms. These include its National Lampoon College TV network, the National Lampoon Humor Network — the most trafficked humor sites on the web, Toga TV.com — the company’s broadband channel, the Drunk University Network, and the National Lampoon Video Network, which includes channels on YouTube, AOL, Yahoo, Joost, and a number of digital video platforms across the Internet. These are all anchored by the award-winning comedy website www.nationallampoon.com.