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Before  Fandango and Movietickets.co, people actually called Moviefone to hear a voice read off movie times to them. Can you imagine that? Well, the popular service MoviePass just made a very bold move and purchased the ancient company for basically peanuts.

Will this move help them gain even more leverage in their goals to take over the movie theater industry?

MoviePass hopes so and is looking to revive the company that people have forgotten about in the wave of new efficient options to get information on movies before they head to the theater. You may have thought it was completely dead but in fact, it’s not even though it’s not even close to as popular as it once was.  The site which offers visitors news on upcoming films, films that have been released, movie streaming services and TV shows still gets about 6 million unique visitors according to MoviePass’s parent company, Helios & Matheson.

MoviePass as popular as it is not making any money, but still continues to grow at an insane pace despite hate from some chains. Paying $9.99 a month and being able to see a movie a day at participating theaters is a deal no one (including myself) could not resist. The service purchased the aging company from Oath (Verizon) for $1 million and supply it  with about $ 8 million worth of common shares in its company.

That is basically a steal.

Oath will also be supplied with warrants to purchase up to $14 million worth of stock. With this purchase, MoviePass hopes they can utilize Moviefone to promote it’s service to the faithful users who still frequent the site. This sounds like a great move on the company’s part as they are looking into eventually offering Groupon like deals to movie-goers. The only problem is getting movie theater chains to get involved with the service which in its current business model form is believed to be unsustainable in the long-term.

So if you haven’t gotten on the MoviePass wave now would be a great time especially at its current membership price.

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MoviePass Purchases Moviefone To Help Boost Its Dominance  was originally published on hiphopwired.com