Wikia Acquires Huddler - Expands Technology, Team, and Lifestyle Audience in Communities for Superfans

SAN FRANCISCO, May 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Wikia, the social universe of fandom and the ultimate source for powerful and relevant expertise in pop culture, entertainment and games, has announced the acquisition of Huddler, a San Francisco-based technology company representing a collection of enthusiast sites with roots in retail and affiliate advertising. With the acquisition, Wikia gains integrated commerce technologies, key talent, and numerous community-driven sites to further its already strong presence within lifestyle communities such as fashion, technology, and outdoors.

Wikia has retained Huddler Co-Founders Ted and Dan Gill, as well as a majority of the Huddler team in order to accelerate engineering, product and business development. While Huddler's 20-plus enthusiast sites will continue to operate independent of the Wikia platform, Huddler's stable of advertising partners will benefit from Wikia's innovative ad programs, reach, and fan authority.

"Wikia operates at a global scale of 100 million fans with pursuits in games and entertainment. Huddler introduces a complement to our content excellence, both culturally and technically," stated Wikia CEO Craig Palmer. "The acquisition allows us to embrace an unduplicated audience of over 12 million who convene and connect around their passions in areas like technology, fashion, sports and other lifestyle pursuits."

"Our team, many of whom started from our living room six and a half years ago, is thrilled to join an organization that is pushing community forward," added Dan Gill, former Huddler CEO. "We're huge advocates for the importance and influence of enthusiast content. Wikia is the right home for our great sites and an amazing environment to realize our ambitions on a grander scale."

In a universe of increasingly ubiquitous social media and user-generated content, Wikia stands apart in its heritage as a collaborative, trusted authority of fan-authored pop culture chronicles. The addition of Huddler's technology, audience and team will further accelerate Wikia's momentum with enhancements to its core experience for fans and marketing partners alike. 

About Wikia: 
Wikia, the social universe for fans, by fans, is the home for social fandom and the ultimate source for powerful and relevant pop culture, entertainment and gaming expertise. It is the definitive place for people to contribute to the assembly of original bodies of multi-media content around subjects they know and love. Using Wikia, anyone can form new communities around any subject or participate in over 400,000 existing communities by reading or contributing new content. With over 30 million pages of rich content, Wikia's communities are the most authoritative information about any topic on the Internet. Wikia's video game vertical (www.wikia.com/videogames) is a leading video-game focused network on the Web. Its entertainment vertical (www.wikia.com/entertainment) is the fastest growing U.S. entertainment destination around the world.

Launched in 2006 by founders Jimmy Wales, Wikia attracts more than 110 million global unique visitors per month and is ranked a Quantcast Top 25 and comScore Top 80 Internet site, as well as a Nielsen Top 10 social network. www.wikia.com or @wikia

SOURCE Wikia