Shamus Acquires Big Apple Con

Wizard dropped a press release yesterday declaring that Gareb Shamus, their founder and CEO, has acquired the long-running Big Apple Con and will run it as a Fall show starting this year. This will make it the only bigger Fall show in the city: Reed Exhibitions' New York Comic-Con has announced it will move into a Fall iteration from its previous winter dates, but will do so starting in 2010.

This story hits on a number of interesting, eyebrow-raising points. Shamus made the purchase and not Wizard, which will likely make some people look at this as a potential exit strategy and landing point for Shamus if Wizard continues its several-month shrink and multiple-enterprise closure period. It marks an acquisition for Shamus after his Wizard Entertainment has stepped back from shows in Los Angeles and Dallas due to economic concerns, which is interesting in terms of what kind of show might still be viable where. It puts the Shamus/Wizard camp as much as they operate together into more of a direct competition with Reed, which will also soon have a Chicago show that will jostle for Windy City superiority with Wizard's flagship show there. It also in a historical sense marks a move into the New York market for Shamus that several years ago many thought was an inevitable development for his company. Much has changed in intervening years.

Wizard reportedly continued its massive purge of personnel from 2007 levels by letting go of, I'm told by sources, Vice-President/CFO Ed DuPre and Associate Editor Brett White. A previously announced move of the entire company into its New York City sales offices is forthcoming.

Video Game Expo, who had previously announced a partnership with Wizard World Philly, will expand that arrangement to include the Chicago Wizard show and the New York Shamus show. Current Big Apple Con producer Michael Carbonaro will stay on with the new show. Wizard provided Benji DeJohn (Show Manager) and Joe Favorito (Media Contact) as contact persons related to the show.

Related, sort of: This is very funny if you're a hardcore industry inside-joke person.
 
posted 8:10 am PST | Permalink
 

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