Future Publishing – the UK media veteran whose portfolio includes (or has included in the past) EDGE, Official Nintendo Magazine, Official PlayStation Magazine, Total!, Super Play and many more games mags – has announced that it has agreed terms on a £14.2 million takeover bid for UK-based rival Imagine Publishing.

Imagine currently oversees 19 magazines – including GamesTM and Retro Gamer – and runs a popular line of "bookazines" which compile previously published content from its magazines. It was founded in 2005. Future’s history goes back a little longer – it began life in 1985 with a single magazine, Amstrad Action.

Future confirmed the deal this morning via social media, causing its share price to jump eight percent to 8.5p.

Here’s what Future chief executive Zillah Byng-Thorne had to say about the deal:

This is a unique opportunity to acquire a market leading knowledge, science and technology content business which will complement and expand our capabilities.

The acquisition will enable us to scale significantly our market position in bookazines and will see us enter the knowledge vertical, broadening our reach.

The addition of Imagine with its strong management team and quality staff enables us to take a further substantial step towards our strategy of creating content that connects, increasing scale and improving operational efficiency.

Via this takeover, Future now has something of a monopoly over the dwindling UK games magazine market. It also runs a series of websites, including GamesRadar and TechRadar. However, Imagine’s large collection of "knowledge and technology" publications will have been equally (if not more) attractive to Future.