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SilverBirch to Acquire Red Mile Entertainment, Holders of the "Heroes" Flight Combat Franchise License
Toronto (July 2, 2008) – SilverBirch Inc. (TSX-V: SVB), a leading digital media company, today announced an agreement in principle to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Red Mile Entertainment, Inc. (OTC BB: RDML), a California-based video game publisher with worldwide rights to established brands and intellectual properties including the "Heroes" flight combat franchise.
Red Mile, an NASD OTC Bulletin Board listed company, has developed and published a number of successful console and PC titles including Heroes Of The Pacific, which sold over 600,000 units. Current projects in development include a sequel, Heroes Over Europe, which is anticipated to be released in early 2009, and another highly anticipated licensed title, for which the company will seek a co-publishing partner.
"Red Mile's position as a strong console publisher of both original and licensed IP complements our core focus in the video game industry," commented Derek van der Plaat, CEO of SilverBirch. "With our publishing capability in Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs), PC and handheld games, the acquisition of Red Mile further rounds out SilverBirch's capability as a comprehensive publisher."
"SilverBirch's strategy to grow through strategic acquisitions is a vision that Red Mile shares and one that we can contribute to in a meaningful way to position the combined entity as a leading integrated video game publisher," added Chester Aldridge, CEO of Red Mile.
Red Mile is expected to contribute over $7 million in revenue and roughly $2 million in EBITDA starting in 2009. SilverBirch has advanced a bridge loan of $750,000 CAD dollars to Red Mile as part of the acquisition terms, and will also issue seven-eighths of one SilverBirch share from treasury in exchange for each Red Mile share, plus an earn-out based on future revenue targets. Currently 16,544,461 Red Mile shares and warrants qualify for the transaction, which equates to 14,476,403 new Silverbirch shares. The transaction is subject to regulatory and exchange approvals both in Canada and the United States as well as, in the case of Red Mile, shareholder approval.
About SilverBirch Studios Inc.
Toronto-based SilverBirch Inc. is a fully integrated developer, publisher and distributor of high quality interactive media content and, through its Jambo Mobile division, provides mobile marketing and direct-to-consumer mobile content. In addition, the company is a multi-platform video game developer and operates an MMORPG game called Metin 2 (see www.metin2.us). For more information, please visit www.silverbirchstudios.com and www.jambomobile.com.
About Red Mile Entertainment, Inc.
Red Mile Entertainment, Inc. is a worldwide developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software. Headquartered in San Anselmo, California, the company creates, incubates and licenses premier intellectual properties and develops products for console video game systems, personal computers and other interactive entertainment platforms. For more info
