London based music and media firm Mama Group, owners of the Channelfly companies and Barfly venues, has said it has agreed to buy London's Forum venue off Mean Fiddler in a £1 million deal. The company says it expects the deal to show in its cash flow and earnings straight away, while adding that although the final purchase price may as yet alter according to an analysis of the venue's up to date accounts, it does not anticipate there being a major change to the million pound price tag.
As previously reported, Mean Fiddler co-owners Live Nation were told by the UK's Competition Commission back in January that it would have to sell either the London Forum or Shepherds Bush Empire in order to get the green light for its proposed acquisition of a majority stake in the UK venues company the Academy Group, to alleviate concerns the Live Nation / Academy deal would give the live music conglom too great a dominance in the London venue sector. Live Nation initially said it was disputing the Commission's conditions, but the sale of the profitable Forum venue to Mama suggests they are now planning on fulfilling them in order to complete their Academy deal. The Commission also said Live Nation must sell either their own Hammersmith Apollo or the Academy Group's flagship London venue the Brixton Academy. It remains to be seen if one or the other of those sales now occurs.
It is also unclear if Mama plan to incorporate the Forum into its Barfly group, or to leave it as a stand alone operation. Confirming the purchase, the group's co-CEOs Adam Driscoll and Dean James told CMU: "The Forum has a long historical association with live music, which is at the heart of our business. We are delighted to be adding such an iconic venue to our existing live music division and we look forward to working with the staff and customers of the Forum to ensure its long term prosperity".
By the way, I don't think we ever mentioned that Mama recently announced they'd bought a 25% stake of Lovebox - the people behind the Lovebox Weekender - and whose existing shareholders include those Groove Armada types. As part of the deal Mama also have an option to buy another 25% of the venture come 2009.