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[Pickles Spill]

Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fullscreen-to-acquire-rooster-teeth-2014-11-10
Important bits:

Background about what Fullscreen is:

Fullscreen is a global youth media company that develops online creators and programs multi-platform entertainment experiences. 450 million subscribers generate more than 4 billion video views across Fullscreen’s global network each month. Headquartered in Los Angeles, the company was founded in January 2011 by CEO George Strompolos, a co-creator of the original YouTube Partner Program. Fullscreen’s network includes more than 55,000 creators, featuring the Fine Bros., O2L (Our 2nd Life), Andrea Russett, Lohanthony, Devin Supertramp and Jack and Jack. Visit Fullscreen.com for more information.

Now the details:

LOS ANGELES & AUSTIN, Texas, Nov 10, 2014 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Fullscreen, a global youth media company that develops online creators and programs multi-platform entertainment experiences, has agreed to acquire Rooster Teeth, a pioneering online creative studio and leading digital content brand.

With this acquisition, Fullscreen will accelerate its expansion with Rooster Teeth’s large audience and content production capabilities, both live and animated. As part of the agreement, Fullscreen will support the production of Rooster Teeth’s existing hit series and the development of new premium formats. With Rooster Teeth, Fullscreen will enhance its merchandise and live events initiatives, and integrate the innovative gaming and culture brand into its technology and advertising infrastructure. Otter Media, a venture between The Chernin Group and AT&T, recently acquired a majority stake in Fullscreen.

“Rooster Teeth is one of the strongest and most authentic media brands in the world amongst 18-34 year old, male-skewing audiences,” said George Strompolos, Fullscreen CEO and founder. “The combination of its massive reach, unique creative voice and insanely powerful community makes it a perfect match for Fullscreen. Burnie and Matt are widely recognized as true pioneers in the world of online video. It’s an honor to team up with them as Fullscreen continues to redefine youth media.”

“At Rooster Teeth, we have a long history of creating the best digital content in the industry,” said Burnie Burns, Rooster Teeth creative director. “With Fullscreen, we look forward to continuing that tradition in even bigger and better ways. Matt and I are excited about the opportunities this alliance will present for our creators and all the amazing content it will empower them to produce for our audience.”

Rooster Teeth will continue operating as a subsidiary in Austin, with Hullum remaining as CEO and Burns as creative director.

While definitely unexpected, I'm not sure how crazy of an impact this'll have on the company itself. I mean, Rooster Teeth has been growing pretty rapidly over the past 5 (or more?) years, and this seems like a logical step to stabilize the business. It's been a while since Rooster Teeth was a really "out of your garage" style company.

 

[Random17]

Whoa... I hope this doesn't change things for the worse. The RT personalities are still reasonably entertaining to listen to every now and then... and RvB S12 is better than some of the previous seasons post Blood Gulch Chronicles.

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

Fullscreen should battle Machinima.com for our amusement. I'd like to see the latter channel get crushed through reasonable methods, and for Rooster Teeth to benefit from this agreement.

 

[Quicksilver4648]

Yeah, it was announced on Monday. Matt and Burnie made posts about it. It will definitely be interesting to see where the company goes from here. They have been indie for 10 years but it was eventual that they would sell to somebody.

 

[A_Gorilla]

Stopped watching RvB post Bloodgulch when they went the dramatic route. Wished they'd return to its comedic roots.

 

[Madness]

"The Fine Bros., O2L (Our 2nd Life), Andrea Russett, Lohanthony, Devin Supertramp and Jack and Jack"... I literally have no clue what any of this is. Pretty crazy how you become out of the loop to what's in these days so quick.

Hopefully RvB doesn't lose their identity, and actually end up in a much better position after this.

 

[Spazznid]

Let's hope they don't lose their luster. Their GTA vids are non-stop fun and I enjoyed RvB to a point, just need to finish rewatching it.

 

[Labrynian Rebel]

I really loved Red vs. Blue back in the day, but then I got REALLY annoyed with the animated Freelancer backstory episodes. I really hated them. I only kept watching because I NEEDED the Director story wrapped up, and when it finally did

Spoiler

I was actually very satisfied with it

I stopped watching and I never looked into it again.

 

[k3rn3ll]

I really enjoy alot of their stuff. I listen too 2 of their podcast every week, and I like the achievement hunter vids. I don't think it will change them much. If what they say is true, they want to continue growing but there is only so much you can grow on paid subscribers alone. If this gives them the money too expand and bring more and more content, I'm all for it. They deserve it tho because they were one of the first gaming sites to innovate the youtube game industry. And what they did with RvsB inspired tons of people to do do machinima. Good luck and congrats RT!

 

[Eppy Thatcher]

Kind of weird. Just this year I have started listening to their podcasts on youtube in the car on my way home and catching up on all their Lets Play stuff... hilariously because Rage Quit ended up bringing me back to the Rooster Teeth channel itself for the first time since 2007 (i had to check my account at ******* to be sure..)
one of the things that it seems Burnie and others were always kind of outwardly proud of was the fact that they kind of did this themselves, stayed independent and still came out on top.
I haven't listened to either of the last two weeks for the podcast. Gotta go catch up and see what Burnie and Gus have to say about all this in a somewhat more relaxed chat session.

 

[DOWN]

They get to join the ranks with greats like Lohanthony and Jack and Jack

 

[Kariodude]

Kind of weird. Just this year I have started listening to their podcasts on youtube in the car on my way home and catching up on all their Lets Play stuff... hilariously because Rage Quit ended up bringing me back to the Rooster Teeth channel itself for the first time since 2007 (i had to check my account at ******* to be sure..)
one of the things that it seems Burnie and others were always kind of outwardly proud of was the fact that they kind of did this themselves, stayed independent and still came out on top.
I haven't listened to either of the last two weeks for the podcast. Gotta go catch up and see what Burnie and Gus have to say about all this in a somewhat more relaxed chat session.

Well, it happened after last week's podcast and on this week's podcast, Burnie and Gus weren't there. From what they've said in their journals on the Rooster Teeth website so far, it's just a lot of avoiding direction questions and asking everyone to trust them. I just don't get it. They broke away from Machinima a little over a year ago because they said they wanted to be in complete control of everything they do and now they've just given it up again.

 

[coolasj19]

Perhaps between their extremely rapid expansions, they just need more support and access to more and higher quality resources and personnel. I'm the last two years they've started an anime (RWBY), a cartoon (X-ray and Vav), a full length movie (Lazer Team), a videogame (RWBY Grim Eclipse), another channel (The Know), a rapidly growing Expo to the point of pretty much being part post-E3 for Xbox (RTX), new offices and they still have a few more deep projects and channel expansions incoming and in progress.

Fullscreen also has some other fine prominent brands under them. I think The Fine Bro (Kids React) and Cyanide and Happiness are a couple. Truly, I think it's a resource grab. To be quite honest I don't know how they're pulling in enough revenue to support themselves in the first place. You listen to Burnie on the podcast and I just know that he and Matt are too smart to make any obviously bad moves. So, that leaves the only possibility is that this is a good move. Also considering that Roosterteeth doesn't live on YouTube and Fullscreen is a YouTube conglomerate, there's something more here I would think.

Anyway, I don't think anything will change in a negative way. Heck, their content has only been getting better recently ie Ten Little Roosters.

 

[rainking187]

I'm a little nervous about this, but hopefully everything works out okay. I'm mostly worried about people at the company being upset about this and potentially leaving.

 

[Stare-Bear]

They get to join the ranks with greats like Lohanthony and Jack and Jack

Yeah, they really missed the boat on this one. Kinda feel sorry for Rooster Teeth...

 

[Marvel]

Hmm...

 

[Calcium]

I honestly don't see why Rooster Teeth needed to be acquired. Their current content is fine production wise and their community just funded a record breaking kickstarter. A little smarmy to go and sell the company after that to get more money. I enjoy their content though so I hope it all turns out well.