Warner Bros. announced today that it has acquired the popular movie listings site and mobile app Flixster, along with its influential movie reviews subsidiary Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes are expected to resume operating independently, but the acquisition does have some pretty big implications, namely movie rentals and purchases.
Warner Bros. has been making a number of advances in the digital space recently, and has already struck a deal with Facebook that allows users to rent Warner Bros. movies directly from the social network. Now WB says it wants Flixster to get on that boat, too, and will set up the site to offer "digital content ownership and delivery across any connected digital device."
It's a smart move for Warner Bros, which will gain control of its own online distribution outlet independent of the Facebooks, Netflixes, iTuneses and Amazons of the world.
[CNET]
