Viacom Closes On Xfire Purchase

By John Eggerton
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

Viacom has completed its $102 million purchase of Xfire, the online video gaming company.

Xfire claims 4 million members in over 100 countries. It supports over 500 games. The company is only a little over two-and-a-half years old.

At the time of the purchase announcement last month, Chris Kirmse, VP, engineering, for Xfire, assured players the company's purchase by the media giant would not change the culture of a company built on "countless late nights full of plenty of kooky bets, made-up games in the hallways, and other insanity.... e're the same people we have always been, building Xfire in the same way we always have."

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.