Fandango Acquires a Rival in Movie Tickets

LOS ANGELES â€" Fandango, the fast-growing online seller of movie tickets, has swallowed a rival company that runs Hollywood Movie Money, a popular gift-certificate system that studios use to promote DVD and Blu-ray releases.

Fandango’s acquisition of the company, Quantum Loyalty Solutions, catapults the online ticket seller deep into a backwater of the movie business, but a lucrative backwater nonetheless, said Paul Yanover, Fandango’s president.

“It’s a great accelerator for us,” he said.

Studios pay Quantum a fee to handle the distribution and redemption of promotional (usually, free) tickets to movies, which are often used to bolster sales of DVDs and Blu-ray discs. One recent offer: Buy “Monsters Inc.” on Blu-ray and get free tickets to “Monsters University.”

Fandango, which makes money by charging a processing fee for online ticket sales and by selling advertising on its Web site, has long worked to build a voucher business and has made some inroads. But Quantum has been a strong competitor, relying on longstanding relationships with studios and theater owners to resist Fandango’s push into its territory.

Quantum has a theater network that includes 36,897 screens. Fandango, which is part of NBC Universal, handles ticketing for about 21,000 screens.