Acquisition of Walford News

18 December 2024

Digitalbox plc

("Digitalbox" or the "Company" or the "Group")

Acquisition of Walford News

 Confirmation of Director Appointment

Digitalbox plc (AIM: DBOX), the mobile-first digital media business, which owns leading websites, including Entertainment Daily, The Daily Mash, The Tab, and Emmerdale Insider, has entered into an agreement to acquire the online assets, including all associated intellectual property, of Walford News ("Acquisition"). Walford News has been providing news, gossip and spoilers about the popular UK soap opera, Eastenders since 2009.

The Acquisition, for a total consideration of £50,000, includes the purchase of the website www.walfordnews.com and associated online assets including the Walford East Facebook page with its c.475.000 followers. The assets all operate an audience-led, advertising-focused media model in common with Digitalbox.

Adding these assets to Digitalbox's growing portfolio is intended to accelerate the Company's "Verticals Strategy". The strategy is to deliver highly targeted sites, based around the Group's core competence, entertainment, that benefit from fan bases delivering the kind of 'super engagement' increasingly favoured by platforms, like Google and Facebook. In August 2024, Company launched Emmerdale Insider, with further launches in the pipeline. The Company continues to eye further acquisition opportunities.

The acquired assets of Walford News have a highly complementary positioning with Digitalbox's brand, Entertainment Daily. A five-month transitional services agreement with the vendor comes into effect from today to support the integration process. During the integration process, Digitalbox will align its content archives and editorial operations as it moves into 2025. In the 12 months to 30 November 2024, the assets being acquired generated revenue of less than 1% of Digitalbox's revenue to 31 December 2023.

Confirmation of Director Appointment

Further to the Company's announcement on 28 November 2024 the Company is pleased to confirm that Richard Spilsbury will join the Board on 1 January 2025 as Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary. In accordance with the AIM Rules the following information is required to be disclosed in relation to Richard Spilsbury. Other than this information Richard Spilsbury has confirmed there is no further information required to be disclosed under paragraph (g) of Schedule Two of the AIM Rules.

Full Name:

Richard Donal Spilsbury

Age:

55

Current beneficial shareholding in the Company:

None

Current directorships:

Fourth Floor Group Limited

Cloudfind Limited

Link Stone Advisory Limited

Link Stone Advisory Partners Limited

2 Russell Street (Bath) Limited

Previous directorships within the last 5 years:

None

Enquiries:

About Digitalbox plc

Based in the UK, Digitalbox is a 'pure-play' digital media business with the aim of profitable publishing at scale on mobile platforms.

Digitalbox operates the following trading brands, "Entertainment Daily", "The Daily Mash", "The Tab", "The Poke", "TV Guide" and "Emmerdale Insider". Entertainment Daily produces and publishes online UK entertainment news covering TV, showbiz and celebrity news. The Daily Mash produces and publishes satirical news content. The Tab is the UK's biggest youth culture site fuelled by students. The Poke expertly curates and editorialises the funniest content from around the web and social media. TV Guide serves as the definitive guide to what is on TV. Emmerdale Insider charts the twists and turns of this ever present British soap staple.

Digitalbox primarily generates revenue from the sale of advertising in and around the content it publishes. The Group's optimisation for mobile enables it to achieve revenues per session significantly ahead of market norms for publishers on mobile.