Buying Digital Foundry wasn't much of an uphill battle, to hear editor and founder Richard Leadbetter tell it, partly because he only had to buy 25 percent. Leadbetter had been holding onto 50 percent of its shares since 2015, when he originally sold his other half to Eurogamer to help fund DF's popular YouTube channel. Eurogamer's parent company Gamer Network obtained that half, which then got acquired by ReedPop, before making its way to IGN when parent company Ziff Davis purchased Gamer Network in turn, each time postponing Leadbetter's own attempts to buy the rest of his company.
Then, this year, IGN suddenly offered to sell its half back: 25 percent to Leadbetter and 25 percent to investor Rupert Loman, who originally founded Eurogamer in 1999 with his brother Nick. Even 25 percent of the company wasn't cheap: "I think this is pretty much easily the biggest thing I've ever bought, more than my house," Leadbetter says.
This is great news as they're one of the best and most important game channels out there. I do wonder if that embarrassing zelda ad video they did a couple months ago was an IGN decision. It was so out of character for DF.