Sainsbury's acquires digital media group

11th Oct 2011 09:49

Sainsbury's has announced the £1m acquisition of online entertainment company Global Media Vault (GMV) from MBL Group. The acquisition was made to support the retailer's drive into the online and digital entertainment market following the launch of the Sainsbury's Entertainment website in November 2010.Sainsbury's is the main client of GMV, a white label online digital entertainment business. It has been trading since January 2009 and its digital database includes over 3m music, film and game assets. Luke Jensen, Sainsbury's group development director, said: "Online retailing and the delivery of digital content will play a key role in the future of entertainment so this is an important acquisition for Sainsbury's. "Taking full control of GMV will enable us to develop our existing Sainsbury's Entertainment website even further enhancing the functionality and customer experience, meaning customers will soon be able to buy, rent or stream content from Sainsbury's."The acquisition also represents a significant time saving when compared to building a platform from scratch ourselves. Securing this platform for Sainsbury's Entertainment shows how we are constantly looking to innovate and seize opportunities that will support the future growth of our business."The UK entertainment market is worth £7.3bn with the digital and online market in strong growth and the online market is expected to double in value by 2015, the firm added. The share price of Sainsbury's fell 0.54% to 296.8p by 10:04.NR