News Corp Grabs IGN

News Corp announced today they plan to purchase the IGN Entertainment to add advertising dollars. The IGN network covers a lot of ground with video games, movies, DVDs, music, comics and tons of other goodies tied mostly to the oft coveted demographic, 18-34 males. This is just one more move by media mogul Rupert Murdoch as continues to dump billions into Internet purchases.

The deal, worth about $650 million in cash and include a lot of websites including IGN.com, Gamespy, Gamespy Arena, FilePlanet, TeamXbox, 3D Gamers, Direct2Drive and GameStats. All these are dedicated to gaming. IGN also owns IGN FilmForce and Rotten Tomatoes for movies and the male lifestyle site, AskMen.com. Yep, old Rupert is definitely going for the audience, one that is build on disposable income.

News Corp has been quite busy snatching up a lot of Internet front property on the web having already picked up Intermix and its site, MySpace and online sports company Scout Media. There was also talk of purchasing Blinkx and Skype and rest assured more are on the way. The high powered demographic is incredibly desirable and News Corp is going after both men and women.

Where this goes from here is anybodies bet, but one can only assume his meeting this weekend in California with his posse will be a brass tacks meeting on what to do next in this juggernaut’s Internet shopping spree.

John Stith is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.