London-based media company Iconic Labs has announced a new management contract with Greencastle Capital, which has agreed a deal to buy JOE and Her owner Maximum Media Network.
Maximum Media is in examinership in Ireland and administration in Britain.
Iconic Labs is already managing all operational and commercial aspects of the JOE Media businesses in the UK.
The company said that completion of the acquisition of Maximum Media is conditional on creditor and court approval and successful Irish media merger clearance, which is hoped to be received within two months.
JOE and Her was founded in Ireland in 2010. It started as a single website (JOE.ie) and evolved into a distributed media business with a portfolio that includes JOE, Her, SportsJOE, and HerFamily.
In a statement, Iconic said that JOE and Her was traditionally profitable but the business invested for very high growth in 2018 and as a result became significantly oversized.
It said this led to an unsustainable cost base, compounded by a culture of pursuing revenue growth over profitability.
"The result was a business that was vulnerable to changes in consumer demand like that caused by Covid-19," the company said.
JOE's existing management team implemented several cost-cutting measures, including the reduction of the workforce by about 40%.
"However, the full benefit of these cost reductions had not transpired once the Covid-19 pandemic hit," Iconic added.
As previously announced, the terms of the management services contract provide that Iconic Labs will be paid a monthly management fee of £50,000 plus external costs for managing the combined businesses.
It will also receive 25% of all profits if certain revenue and profit targets are met.
Greencastle Capital's Paul O'Donohoe said that JOE is an iconic Irish brand and he was very pleased to have signed the agreement with the company's Examiner to acquire the business.
"We hope that the media merger process will proceed smoothly and look forward to completing the acquisition as soon as possible. Once that has been done we can then more fully integrate the Irish and UK operations, with the headquarters to be based in Dublin," Mr O'Donohoe said.
"With an integrated management structure, investment to grow and the expertise of the Iconic Labs team we can then see what JOE is capable of achieving," he added.
