Best merger ever.
That may describe the sentiment of many fanboys and comic geeks towards the purchase of Nerdist Industries by Legendary Entertainment, announced Tuesday.
Founded by Thomas Tull, who was also an early Nerdist investor, Legendary Entertainment houses Legendary Pictures, Hollywood-based producer of such fanboy-favorite film titles as The Watchmen, 300, Inception and The Dark Knight.
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Meanwhile, founded in 2008 by Chris Hardwick, Nerdist has become the multi-platform mecca that obsessed young males flock to when they want to break down such film properties in impossibly granular detail.
The company claims to reach 15 million users a month across its podcasts, website, YouTube channel. And Hardwick — who continues to run the operation out of his Los Angeles comic book store — has even transitioned to traditional media, serving as host to Talking Dead, the “post-game” show AMC has developed to compliment its comic-book-inspired hit, The Walking Dead.
According to the joint announcement, Hardwick will continue to run Nerdist without editorial constraints, alongside Peter Levin, who joined the fold last year when his GeekChicDaily merged with Nerdist. Hardwick will now operate under the title of president of digital content for Legendary, while Levin will be called co-president of digital strategy.
Legendary’s purchase price wasn’t revealed.
The deal was announced on the eve of Comic Con, the San Diego-based fanboy mega-convention.
“Legendary’s vision and trajectory as a top-down leader in providing genre-themed content to a very discriminating audience is the ideal environment for Nerdist to thrive,” said Levin, in a statement. “The fact that we can retain the independent nature of the brand while working closely with the team at Legendary is an exciting next step in the evolution of the Nerdist Industries brand.”
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