XFire, the gamer's buddy list of choice, has been bought up by MTV's parent company Viacom.
The software has become increasingly popular over the last six months, as Microsoft has failed to come up with a PC version of its user-friendly Xbox Live software. Xbox Live provides similar functionality to XFire, allowing for gamers to communicate with each other and invite each other into games regardless of what they may be playing at any particular point.
XFire fetched $102m. Viacom hopes that it can capture the same teen audience on the net that it has attracted on TV through its MTV and Nickolodeon channels and its Paramount film studio. XFire has around four million users.
Viacom's major rival is Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, which bought MySpace last year as well as massive entertainment portal IGN.com.
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