Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Pangea buys online quiz and humor biz, LaughNetwork

By Mass High Tech Staff

Pangea Media LLC reports that it has purchased LaughNetwork Corp., a network of websites focused on humor, quizzes and casual entertainment.

Watertown-based Pangea, which employs 20 workers, develops online quizzes and quiz technology. Kentucky-based LaughNetwork employs 10 workers, company officials said.

The deal expands Pangea Media into a wider range of interactive content through LaughNetwork’s more than 50 websites, including Funnies.com, SnapPoll.com, YourSpaceIsBest.com and HopelessRomantic.com. The sites contain greeting cards, animated flash content, social media tools, jokes and quizzes. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

More than 300,000 visitors access LaughNetwork sites each day, resulting in more than 1.5 million page views, officials said.

Pangea Media, founded in 2006, operates a network of quiz and casual entertainment websites such as QuizRocket.com and Quibblo.com. The websites are designed to enable users to take or create quizzes and quiz-based content. The company also develops tools that publishers can use to embed quiz-related content on their own sites, officials said.

Pangea Media claims more than 50,000 registrations each day.

In July, Pangea Media released the Quibblo Polls widget for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. The widget, which is available through iTunes, is built on uLocate Communications Inc.’s WHERE application for the iPhone and iPod Touch.