Founders Investment Banking, LLC is pleased to announce the acquisition of MMAjunkie.com (“MMAjunkie”) by USA TODAY Sports Media Group (“USA TODAY”), subsidiary of Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), per their announcement.  Founded in 2007, MMAjunkie.com is one of the world’s leading multimedia outlets for the rapidly growing sport of mixed martial arts, delivering content through web, television, online radio and mobile platforms. The site is widely recognized as the most credible source for up-to-date MMA news, having won Best Media Source at the World MMA Awards the past three years.  The site will retain its unique URL, along with its entire editorial staff.

Founders Investment Banking acted as the exclusive financial advisor to MMAjunkie.com’s shareholders in the transaction.  “We are extremely pleased with the outcome of this process,” stated MMAjunkie’s co-founder Eric Foster.  “Joining the USA TODAY platform is an exciting milestone for the business, and we anticipate continued success as MMAjunkie has the opportunity to leverage the extensive resources, relationships, and expertise that the Sports Media Group brings to the table.  The Founders team was a pleasure to work with and certainly exceeded our shareholders’ expectations.  They demonstrated a keen understanding for our business, and their relationships within the digital media industry proved instrumental in generating multiple compelling offers for our business, which resulted in the best possible partnership for the site in USA TODAY.”

“This is an exciting acquisition for us, and one that greatly enhances the editorial capabilities of the USA TODAY Sports Media Group in covering mixed martial arts across all platforms,” said Tom Beusse, president of the USA TODAY Sports Media Group. “Since its inception, MMAJunkie has established itself by breaking stories on a regular basis and providing fans with the most relevant and complete coverage available for this evolving and fast-growing sport, and we will continue to strengthen and expand that coverage for our fans.”

Joe Brady, Vice President of Founders Investment Banking’s Internet & Digital Media practice, remarked, “We are very excited with the partnership and opportunity that MMAjunkie.com and USA TODAY have created through this process.  I commend the MMAjunkie team for building a leading content platform in the very competitive space of MMA.  The timing was absolutely right to bring in a partner that could provide the resources and relationships to take everything to the next level, and USA TODAY has assembled a great team with tremendous momentum in their new Sports Media Group.  I look forward to watching MMAjunkie.com continue to flourish under the ownership of USA TODAY in the coming months and years.”

The USA TODAY Sports Media Group, created in January, encompasses all sports initiatives across USA TODAY, as well as Gannett Co. Inc.’s 82 daily newspaper properties, 23 broadcast television stations, HighSchoolSports.net and BNQT.com. USA TODAY is owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI).

MMAjunkie.com, the three-time World MMA Awards “Best Media Outlet” winner, is an independent news site devoted to the latest MMA breaking news, interviews, fight announcements and event information from the UFC, Strikeforce, Bellator, DREAM and other top MMA promotions. For more information on the company, please visite www.MMAjunkie.com

Founders Investment Banking, LLC is an independent, middle-market capital advisory firm, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, that is dedicated to providing a comprehensive range of customized solutions for its clients, including merger and acquisition, merchant banking and corporate and strategic finance advisory services.  In order to provide securities-related services, certain principals of Founders are licensed with Burch & Company, Inc., a registered broker-dealer. Burch and Founders are unaffiliated entities.  For more information on our firm, please visit www.foundersib.com.