Roo Buys Wurld Media for $10M

Roo Group announced today it will acquire Wurld Media, maker of various content distribution platforms including Peer Impact, for up to $10 million in cash and stock.

Peer Impact had gained fame when it snared NBC Universal in November 2005, the first major studio to make its content available from a legitimate peer-to-peer provider. Despite what appears to be minimal traffic, the company has since signed 20th Century Fox, WB, Univeral, Sony, Warner, EMI, Fox Musix, Fox for Movies, Atari, and Activision, among others.

Peer Impact, which is Windows and Internet Explorer-only, uses a referral revenue share to pay users and peers, analogous to Revver, but in most cases with studio content rather than user-generated. The company splits 10 percent of a file’s purchase price between peers who share it and members who recommend it.

I wrote about Peer Impact and other rev-share efforts about a year ago in a story for Red Herring (reg req). Some of you with a long memory may recall Saratoga Springs, NY-based Wurld Media had previously been involved in adware before it launched Peer Impact.

The acquisition price is not hefty, but it’s an exit for eight-year-old Wurld, with $1.5 million up front, $6.5 million upon completion of the deal, and $2 million based on performance. The company is said to have some significant IP in the P2P space.

Roo customer News Corp recently took a 10 percent stake in the company. Roo had also bought MyVideoDaily for $350,000 plus stock about a month ago.

Roo shares are trading down $0.20 at $4.20.