Wowhead on the acquisition
by Eliah Hecht 
Jun 23rd 2007 at 6:27PM
This is what I like to see. Wowhead, as promised, posted a much more detailed page on their acquisition by (as they put it) the ZAM network. According to Tim "Evilseed" Sullivan, Wowhead's CEO, "[ZAM] have no relation with IGE. They are all about content and building communities and tools to help gamers, just like what we've done with Wowhead." A very interesting Q&A follows; here are the bits that answer the questions that I've been most concerned about:Q: Didn't you sell to a bunch of gold sellers?
Tim: Nope, and that would have been a deal killer. The ZAM guys are an independent content business, and they don't promote RMT (Real Money Trade). Period. You will never see gold ads on Wowhead or their other ZAM sites. We made sure that was true before proceeding.
Q: What is the deal with Affinity Media? Why all the secrecy?
John [Maffei, president of ZAM]: Affinity Media is a privately held company with gaming assets that operate independently. This includes the ZAM Network. The reason we are not more forthcoming in what the company owns and does it there are a lot of moving pieces. At one point, the company owned IGE but it was sold this spring. It was a private transaction so we can't reveal details. As head of the content network, I was thrilled we sold.
Q: How can I believe any of this is true? I read on another site that a former employee says this is all false.
John: I would strongly caution people not to believe all the rumors they read. For example, it came to my attention that the individual who leaked the story about the Wowhead sale supposedly not only owns competitive content properties but also is the partner in a successful RMT site. Like all Internet rumors, it is just that, but please consider the source when you hear damning stuff. Why not take a free shot at your top competitor. If the rumor above is true about the source of these comments, it is of course the height of hypocrisy.
Q: What will happen to Wowhead?
Skosiris [Wowhead co-lead dev]: Wowhead will continue on as the site everyone has come to know and love. Only, now we will have more resources to complete the plans we have already begun to make the site even better. Expect some great enhancements to the site soon!
If you have any further questions, Wowhead urges you to contact them at the address set up for this occasion, press@wowhead.com. Head over to their site to read the full piece first, as well as an official press release from ZAM. It quelled most of my fears about the sale, and now I can be happy for the good people at Wowhead, instead of worried about gold sellers invading my last sanctum. Congrats on the sale, guys!
P.S. Yes, I know we have gold ads. Please keep mailing them in so we can get rid of them. Thanks!
Filed under: News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Tumples Jun 23rd 2007 7:34PM
Good news, hope they stick to their promises, thats all I can say.
Aurendar Jun 23rd 2007 8:00PM
Well, I'm still just going to take the "wait and see" approach. Not too sure I'm buying all this innocent "we're not gold sellers" talk. But we'll see.
My main question is if both Thottbot, Allakhazam and Wowhead are ALL owned by ZAM, doesn't that seem like overkill? Which ones will be going away? It only stands to reason.
Pigeon Jun 23rd 2007 8:04PM
LOL. That's the best peice of PR spin I have read in ages. Just the the garbage Allakhazam pumped out until they couldn't deny it any longer. There are so many holding companies involved in this as a smoke screen you would have to be brain-dead to beleive IGE was still not involved in Affinity in some way. IGE has not been sold off, no press release was ever issued and you'd think Affinity would be telling the world about it if it had happened to gain back all their lost visitors. In fact so would IGE.
The former employee quote is also funny. Why on earth would you release a comment like that publicly mud slinging if you were not trying to cover your tracks. Doh!
Forget WoWhead, won't be using that again that's for sure.
Shefki Jun 23rd 2007 8:21PM
What's interesting about all this is this is almost exactly the line of bull we were fed when Allakzham was sold. Then it turned out that what really had happened was the company was restructured and IGE and Zam were held by the same holding company.
They also said that Allakzham would have more resources. Well I'm still waiting for the wonderful site enhancements we were promised.
What is true is Allakzham didn't seem to end up with gold adds, but ultimately I saw a ton of the community leave over it. Many people stopped submitting.
Bye wowhead. Hopefully something better will come along. You're about to become a very useless place.
Silvertusk Jun 23rd 2007 9:38PM
There's so much misinformation being spread, it's sickening.
@3 & 4: Okay, listen carefully. Affinity Media owns ZAM, and once owned IGE. Semi-recently they have sold IGE to a private investor, since others were complaining and the company was hurting AM's image.
But, you ask, why aren't they announcing anything? There's two reasons:
1) The sale transaction between IGE, Affinity Media and the private investor that bought IGE is, well.. PRIVATE! IGE does NOT want to be known as a 'notorious company', and have very likely bartered for privacy. So if anyone asks a suit from IGE, it is an all likelihood that they will deny saying a word about it ON PURPOSE. Also, IGE is now solely based in Hong Kong, and doesn't have really have an outlet in North America or the United Kingdoms.
2) Affinity Media is undergoing reconstruction. Go to their website, affinitymedia.com, for more information.
Also, I'd like to point out something - if you go to any website affiliated with the ZAM.com network, you will not find a single RMT-based ad, at all. I DARE you to try and find one.
So seriously, lighten up, people. The free market is awesome.
jboy Jun 23rd 2007 9:42PM
Since we all must take affinity media's word that their current ownership has NO affiliation with IGE, simply stating who actually owns IGE will go a long way to prove it.
Affinity media will continue to be considered a pariah until they stop the whole cloak and dagger routine.
Vandell Jun 23rd 2007 9:46PM
@7:
If you read my post (the one above yours, #5) you'd realize that Affinity Media sold IGE to a private investor, who more than likely doesn't want people to think that the company sold "the weakest link" to someone else.
Currently, affinitymedia.com is undergoing construction. You will probably see them simply listing IGE as an affiliated company when their new design is released.
Shefki Jun 23rd 2007 11:19PM
Private means not traded on the public markets. Meaning you can't buy into it. It does *NOT* mean you keep every thing secret about your business.
While it's certainly true that Affinity has no obligation to share any information or whoever bought IGE for that matter.
Fact is they have a history of LYING about the situation with IGE. When the Allakhazam transaction went through the people who owned Allakazham were all over their forums claiming that Affinity didn't own IGE.
Guess what, they later had to admit that IGE was owned by the same holding company that owned Affinity.
Their response if you read about is they aren't giving details because of "a lot of moving parts." Being a business man that sounds like PR speak for we have something to hide and in particular we've got a complex holding company setup to hide what we're doing.
They tell us to consider the source when we hear stuff. Well that's exactly what I'm doing. Affinity has shown a habit of misrepresenting the truth. Why should we believe them now?
And yes they haven't had any RMT adds on their site. Doesn't mean they aren't associated with them. The RMT people are business people in it to make money. They don't care about the games. There's no reason to think they're not just buying these sites knowing that they can make money off them and that the community will destroy them if they allow the connection to be known.
Affinity can't just show up and proclaim that they've washed their hands of IGE. They have to prove it.
CVJ Jun 24th 2007 12:55AM
Personally I really could care less if the company that bought them owns a gold farming business or not, the site is ten times cleaner, organized, and better than Thotbott.
If people do not want them to get purchased by a company that might have a vested interest in gold farming then suggest Wowhead go to a subscription model and pay for the content. Probably most people do not want to do that and the guys at Wowhead like making money like everyone else so congrats to all of them.
Shefki Jun 24th 2007 1:46AM
@9, I had a paid subscription to Allakzham until they got bought. I would have gladly paid for wowhead. But the option was never available for me to choose.
Oren Jun 24th 2007 1:03AM
mmm, just been acquired today and I already see smiley software ads(for those who don't know, smiley software = spyware).
Varus Jun 24th 2007 2:40AM
Just becase Affinity Media has now potentially sold IGE to someone else (and they refuse to state who owns them now) doesn't make them good guys over the night. They're still the scum gold sellers who've been bothering me for the past 2 years.
I understand the people behind wowhead wanted the cash and sold out. I probably would have done the same.
But don't come around pretending Affinity Media is "on our side" all of a sudden, their business ethics are questionable to say the least.
Guernia Jun 24th 2007 2:48AM
So if Thott, Alla and WowHead are all suspect, what's a good alternative? TenTonHammer was mentioned elsewhere, any other sites worth mentioning?
CrpyTech Jun 24th 2007 2:59AM
You have to buy gold, or at least click on an Ad before money is exchanged. Why is this an issue? I don't, won't, ever buy gold or visit a gold site. What difference does it make?
Also, if offered a million dollars you can bet your sweet a$$ I'd sell. It's a game against taking care of my family, no contest. It's not like we have been doing anything but leaching off them. In fact some consider it cheating just to use such sites.
Sterling Jun 24th 2007 4:39AM
personally, /give rat's ass
The number of "l2p" people that gripe about gold ads is nauseating. How about "learn to browse"? I voluntarily use Firefox and Ad Block Plus. Does that mean that I see gold ads? No. Unlike Safari (for XP) and IE6+, I spend less time making an addon work right than I spend making sure a clean install keeps me safe (from ads and keyloggers btw ... 12 years of smart browsing and counting).
Varus Jun 24th 2007 6:09AM
@15
I think you're missing the point. I use FF and Adblock as well and it's trivial to get rid of the gold selling ads on the web.
The point is, the whole gold selling industry is trying to make itself look legit by owning many of these "community" sites. A bit like Colombian drug cartels buying into legitimate US companies, to make them seem more legal (yeah, bad analogy.. but there you go).
Gendou Jun 24th 2007 7:56AM
Wowhead was the last site that was officially sanctioned by Blizzard because they weren't owned by goldsellers. Now that they're owned by the same network that owns the other two non-sanctioned sites, what do you think the status will be for Wowhead?
Pigeon Jun 24th 2007 9:53AM
Check this. Seems IGE are still tied to Affinity. So they are talking bull. Same old lies once again.
Pigeon Jun 24th 2007 9:55AM
Link to news.com story about IGE still with affinity as of yesterday.
NeuroMan42 Jun 24th 2007 11:49AM
Gotta love the lies tied to this ENTIRE company and it's affiliates. Sad to see another great database get crapped on.