Future US Buys News Aggregation Service Ballhype

Future US, the once-parent of Business 2.0 and part of Future plc (LSE: FUTR), the UK based trade media company, has bought out BallHype, a Belmont, CA-based owner of basketball news aggregation site ballhype.com and celeb news aggregation site Showhype.com, for an undisclosed sum. The company was founded last year, and says the two sites have nearly 2 million uniques per month. More details here, and at the BallHype blog. Updated: TC reports the price was $3 million.

Future US has focused on games, computing, action sports and musician magazine over the last few years, after changing its name from Imagine Media to Future in 2003.

Joseph adds: Both should be pretty familiar to anyone that's seen Digg or Reddit, as they feature a front page that allows for up and down voting, comments, and then sections for various sub-verticals. Josh Hamilton's amazing display at last night's homerun derby is on the frontpage of BallHype today. BallHype was started by husband and wife Jason Gurney and Erin Gurney last year, and it claims 2 million unique users per month. This isn't the first time Future US, a unit of UK's Future plc, has invested in this area: In February it took an investment in N4G.com, a Digg-like site for gamers.