SOLD
Hilco Streambank (“Hilco”) is seeking offers to acquire the intellectual property assets of Youngest Media Limited (In Liquidation) (“Youngest” or the “Company”) on behalf of the Joint Liquidators of the Company, Jonathan David Bass and Giuseppe Parla of Menzies LLP.
Launched in 2015, Youngest was an angel-backed global entertainment studio that generated in excess of £8.3m in revenue prior to its Liquidation. Comprising the former creative and commercial management team behind one of the UK’s leading production companies behind a range of hit global entertainment formats, Youngest developed entertaining formats across all platforms and territories, including broadcast, video, events and digital.
The Company developed a reputation for unique content and ideas that can reach a mass audience, delivering shows for the biggest broadcasters in the world, the newest platforms, and directly for brands. The Company has developed and provided concepts to several industry titans, including the BBC, ITV, NBC and Channel 4.
Youngest focused on creating ambitious, innovative television for global audiences. The Company delivered various creative and commercial hits, including award-winning, multi-territory, hit dating series Game of Clones and quiz show Hardball, dexterity-intensive gameshow Small Fortune and many more. Prior to Liquidation, the Company also developed a slate of new programme ideas and concepts, all of which are available to acquire.
The Company also invested outside of television, producing and successfully monetising a range of popular branded apps (the “Apps”), expanding its offering and opening new avenues for future growth, and also available to acquire.
Significant investment was made in building the recognised and respected Youngest brand and well-known formats, with the Company having secured over £2m of investment prior to Liquidation. In the financial year ending 31 December 2021, the Company generated revenues of c. £2.8m with a gross profit of c. £1.1m, significant growth on the previous year (c. £2m revenue and gross profit of c. £506k).
This is a unique opportunity to capitalise on the ever-growing demand for unique and imaginative broadcast and digital formats and acquire the Company’s diverse format catalogue, fresh and innovative concepts and supporting intellectual property assets.
Almost a decade old, the Youngest brand is highly regarded and well-known across the UK, Europe and beyond. The Youngest brand strives to distinguish itself from other studios as the source of ambitious, innovative television for global audiences.
The Company has worked with an enviable former client roster, including the likes of the BBC, ITV and NBC, lauded for producing big entertainment ideas with universal appeal.
The Youngest brand and formats were also recognised at the Broadcast Awards, with the Company’s format Moneybags nominated for a daytime BAFTA award in 2022.
The brand has been publicised by various media outlets and key industry sources, including the BBC, Channel 4, Broadcast Now, Televisual and Media City UK.
The Company established a reputation as the pre-eminent source of brilliant, distinctive and saleable entertainment concepts.
The Company has an extensive portfolio of registered trade marks covering the “Youngest” and “Youngest Media” brand names, along with others protecting a number of the Company’s format names, including Small Fortune, Moneybags and Hardball.
The Company has developed various entertainment formats, including its game shows and reality shows, BAFTA-nominated Moneybags, award-winning dating series Game of Clones, and game show Small Fortune, amongst others.
The Company holds a catalogue of original formats and new concepts devised by founders David Flynn (Producer of The Million Pound Drop and Co-Creator and Executive Producer of Pointless) and Lucas Church (previously CEO of global production company Endemol UK). The Company’s rights to these formats are available to acquire.
Built in-house, the Company also developed gameplay graphics software for several game-show formats: Hardball, Very Hard Questions, Small Fortune and Moneybags.
The Company’s rights to the software are also available to acquire.
Before Liquidation, the Company produced its own music for several of its shows, including Small Fortune, Moneybags and Hardball.
The Company’s rights to these creations are also available to acquire as part of a sale.
Under the guise of “Youngest Games”, the Company also developed a number of elegant and visually striking mobile apps (the “Apps”), bringing the format market beyond TV to digital.
The Company also developed an iOS and Android app for its prime-time game show format, Small Fortune, which topped Apple’s “new game” charts, gaining over 300k players in the UK and spreading internationally.
Youngest also launched a partner iOS app to accompany its format, Very Hard Questions, adopted by Channel 4.
The Company’s rights in its various Apps are available to acquire.
The Company holds a sizeable domain name portfolio, including the primary youngestmedia.com domain name and other variations on the Youngest brand name. Youngest also owns a range of domain names protecting several of the Company’s format names, including Small Fortune, Moneybags and Game of Clones.
A full list of the Company’s domain names is available via a virtual data room.
The Company also owns the copyright in its website content hosted at various domains.
Rights in various Youngest-branded social media accounts are also available to acquire, with a collective following of several thousand followers.
The Company also owns a number of social media accounts in the names of several of its formats, including Moneybags, Small Fortune and Hardball, all of which are available to acquire.
SOLD
[1] Please note that third parties may have ongoing rights to certain of the Company’s intellectual property assets. For more details, please enquire to Hilco.
The Joint Liquidators act as an agent of the Company and without personal liability.
The bidder acknowledges that Hilco acts as an agent for the Joint Liquidators who offer for sale only what right, title and interest (if any) the Company possesses in the assets. Such sale will be without any warranties, expressed or implied. The information provided has not been verified by Hilco or the Joint Liquidators and bidders are deemed to have carried out their own due diligence.
VAT, if applicable, at 20% will be added to the price. A non-refundable deposit of 20% will be payable by the buyer within 48 hours of bid acceptance. A buyer’s premium of 10% of the sale price is payable by the winning bidder. Legal completion to occur within 5 business days of bid acceptance. Hilco’s full Terms and Conditions apply.
