As we were first to report in early April, Yahoo was on the verge of acquiring college sports network Rivals.com. It took a few months to complete, finally closing after months of digging through Rivals’ plethora of distribution contracts and a yes vote from the Yahoo board Tuesday. The terms aren’t being released but the amount is close to the $100 million we reported earlier. Back in April, we were told by executives dealing with online sports acquisitions that Rivals.com was worth $50-75 million in the context of sports media companies. FIM paid $60 million for competitor Scout.com in September 2005.

For Yahoo, it’s a substantial investment in media at a time when the company’s every move is under a microscope. Yahoo Sports is part of SVP Scott Moore’s portfolio. He explained the acquisition in an interview Wednesday:

-- Moore describes Rivals as “extremely complementary to Yahoo Sports,” filling a collegiate sports gap. (Yahoo has been licensing content from Rivals.) “It’s about investing in our media leadership.... We’re doubling down on the media businesses [within our company].” As for the price, while he wouldn’t discuss details, when asked about the belief in some parts that $100 million is too much, Moore replied, “That’s always a subjective judgment … You have to make certain assumptions about what the inherent underlying value of the asset is.”

-- “From a business standpoint, they have a robust subscription business around their communities. We think that is highly leverage-able. They’ve really become vertical social networks.” Rivals has about 185,000 subscribers who pay $99.95 annually or $9.95 a month; most are annual subs. The company turned profitable in the past 12-18 months.

-- Yahoo expects to boost Rivals’ traffic and subscribers once “Yahoo rocket fuel is applied” in terms of marketing. But Yahoo also expects Rivals to boost its own standings in the online sports world. When we first wrote about it, acquiring Rivals seemed like a way to push past ESPN. Moore says now: “Yahoo Sports passed ESPN two months ago and widened the gap in May.” He expect Rivals to increase that.

-- Rivals already was moving into high school sports; Yahoo will push that expansion with an emphasis on user-generated content.

-- Rivals.com relies on an extensive network of local publishers; due diligence on those contracts took considerable time but Moore said the distribution deals were assignable.

Rivals.com will remain as an independent brand but will be integrated into Yahoo Sports. The senior leadership team has agreed to stay, including CEO and president Shannon Terry. Moore said the company was well aware of a past problem Terry had with the SEC but said it happened when he was a “fairly young guy,” that he had paid a fine and that his behavior had been exemplary since. Moore: “It is what it is but we were comfortable wouldn’t prevent us from doing the transaction.”

Note: This story was embargoed until midnight eastern but for the second day in a row an AP subscriber has posted it hours early—complete with the embargo warning.