Warner Brothers just bought Flixter for a price speculated to be around $60 million.

The internal memo announcing the deal just landed in our inbox:

All –



About ten minutes ago we entered into a definitive agreement for Flixster to be acquired by the Home Entertainment division of Warner Bros.



We’re going to have an all-hands company meeting today to talk through why we’re doing this, what it means for everyone and when we will be distributing the bugs bunny hats. But to answer just a couple of your most pressing questions immediately:



Why are we doing this?



The big strategic vision behind this deal is that Flixster can provide a platform to improve the user experience of owning and watching digital movies from any device - which is a really big deal for the future of the whole movie industry. The plan is to expand all our applications beyond discovery to include digital movie storage and access. However, while we will talk about it less in the press, we also expect to launch a number of new initiatives that will grow our audience and thus our advertising business substantially as well.



What is the plan?



Flixster will continue to operate as a wholly independent subdivision. James, Saran, Steve & I are still running the joint. (Sorry about that.) From an operational standpoint, we will continue working with all studios and we will maintain strict editorial independence. No, we will not be getting a nicer office.



Do I still have a job?



No one is losing or keeping their job because of this deal. If you’ve been reading ESPN the magazine all day instead of working – you are still in trouble.



That is probably enough for now. We’ll repeat these same points over and over again in person in a few hours and perhaps answer a few additional questions as well. Hannah will follow-up shortly with details on the timing and dial-in info.



For now, most importantly, congratulations to all of you! We can’t wait to start this new chapter together!!



Your exhausted but excited managers,



Saran, Steve, James & Joe

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