IPC Media buys Mousebreaker.com for “seven figures”

Mousebreaker.com, a casual gaming portal aimed squarely at males aged 18-34, has just been snapped up for a reported “seven figure sum.”

IPC Media, publisher of titles ranging from lads mags Nuts and >Loaded to NME and Woman’s Weekly, bought Mousebreaker to “doubles our portfolio’s digital reach of UK young men” according to IPC Ignite MD Eric Fuller.

Mousebreaker was formed in 2001, has over 200 free flash games and has 4 million uniques a month.

To me, the deal seems critical. The men’s “lifestyle” market is in trouble, with circulations falling heavily for lads mags in 2007. IPC’s Loaded magazine saw circulation drop 30% to 115,065; EMAP’s rival FHM lost 56,114 readers.

And it’s not surprising given that their target market is young, tech-savvy and used to getting their information, entertainments and, I would guess, titillation from the Internet.

So it is interesting to see IPC fighting back not with more soft-porn or editorial, with a casual gaming portal that appeals to its core audience by offering lots of free games.

Expect to see more of these deals as traditional media fight back.