The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Publishing Media

The Hook enters administration, Brave Bison acquires IP and channels

Author

By John McCarthy, Opinion Editor

April 30, 2020 | 3 min read

Administrator KPMG has sold some of its assets in social video publisher The Hook to rival Brave Bison, including IP and channels.

the hook group

The Hook enters administration, Brave Bison acquires IP and channels

The brand, which produced social videos and branded comedy spots, was founded in 2014 and entered administration recently due to cashflow issues.

Its team of up to 25 positioned the brand as the UK’s answer to platforms such as College Humour, Vice and Complex, and was known for its memorable comedy shorts. Meanwhile, The Hook Labs, its commercial wing which won Social Media Team of the Year at The Drum Online Media Awards in 2018, spoke with authority on social video performance measurement.

The Hook, which had in excess of 14 million followers across social media, is being administrated by Steve Absolom and Will Wright from KPMG’s restructuring practice.

"Certain assets of the business" were sold to social video company Brave Bison and six staff have made the transfer. These are understood to be The Hook social assets and intellectual property.

Steve Absolom, partner at KPMG and joint administrator, said that the group had experienced "significant cash flow issues during the first quarter of the year", particularly due to Covid-19 spend suspensions.

“At a time when staying connected feels more important than ever, we are therefore pleased to have been able to secure a sale to Brave Bison," he said.

He added: "While it is pleasing to have been able to preserve a number of jobs as part of the transaction, sadly it has not been possible to find a solution which involved a transfer for all of the Hook Group’s employees."

Aside from a small skeleton of staff, the rest will be made redundant.

Publishing Media

More from Publishing

View all

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +