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By Darwin G. Amojelar Reporter
GMA Network Inc. on Friday
announced its venture into online gaming in the first quarter of
next year.
In a disclosure to the
Philip-pine Stock Exchange, the television network said its
subsidiary GMA New Media Inc. has entered into a shareholders’
agreement with IP E-Game Ventures Inc. (IPE), a subsidiary of IPVG
Corp.
GMA Network said it will create a
new company called I-Play Inc., which will engage in the business of
designing, operating and maintaining casual online gaming and
gaming-related portals.
I-Play shall have an authorized
capital stock of P800 million, with an initial paid-in
capitalization of P200 million. GMA-NMI and IPE will each have a
50-percent stake in the company.
In the first 10 months of the
year, GMA Network said its net income went up by 22 percent to P2.06
billion.
For October alone, the company
registered an all-time-high profit of P306 million. The company’s
revenue that month breached the P1-billion level, its highest
monthly net income to date.
Airtime revenue in the first 10
months reached P8.95 billion, up by 7 percent from last year.
Likewise, year-to-date revenues of QTV and of the network’s
international operations rose by 63 percent and 48 percent,
respectively.
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