In yet another online video acquisition, GoFish Corporation announced it has agreed to acquire Bolt, Inc. in a stock-for-stock transaction valued at $30 million. The combined company will develop made-for-Internet programming that is ideally suited for advertisers targeting the 18-34 year-old demographic.

The acquisition will enable GoFish to distribute its original short form programs through Bolt's online properties, including Bolt.com, a popular youth-oriented website. Bolt, which reported sales in 2006 of approximately $7 million (unaudited), counts Coca-Cola, Verizon Wireless, Nike, Sony and various other Fortune 500 companies among its repeat advertisers.

GoFish, with its pipeline of original programs such as America's Dream Date and Artist Voices, will benefit from the reach and creative nature of Bolt's online community as well as the scale of Bolt's advertising sales capabilities.

"Bolt is one of the Internet's great youth brands and a perfect fit for GoFish," said Michael Downing, co-founder and CEO of GoFish. "Bolt's blue chip advertisers recognize that the company excels at marketing to online communities. We wanted to acquire a large, creative audience to interact and participate in our original programming, as well as a sales organization to package these shows for premium advertisers. We expect Bolt to deliver on both fronts."

The combination will create an online video company with roughly 7 million monthly unique visitors in the U.S., according to Comscore Media Metrix, and over 19 million globally.

"The future of online video lies in nurturing the creative generation to produce made-for-Internet content that will accelerate the migration of advertising dollars from television to the Internet," said Aaron Cohen, co-founder and CEO of Bolt Media who, along with Bolt's President, Jay Gould, will join GoFish when the merger is completed. "The combined company will create better programming for our audiences and our advertisers. Couple this with a valuable public currency, Bolt's large audience, and a roster of blue-chip advertisers, and we now have the platform to consolidate the industry and build a business with significant scale."