Founded by Jonah Peretti and John Johnson in 2008, BuzzFeed has emerged as the poster child for viral videos, list-based articles, and social media-powered news sharing – today it claims 200 million month unique visitors.
Advertisement
The trade-off for Vox Media and BuzzFeed is also fairly easy to parse: The two companies give up a chunk of equity for cash, which they can use to fuel their significant growth ambitions. Prior to the deal, NBCU parent company Comcast held a 14 percent stake in Vox through its investment arm, Comcast Ventures.
“BuzzFeed has built an exceptional global company that harmonizes technology, data and superior editorial abilities to create and share content in innovative ways”, said Steve Burke, CEO of NBCUniversal in a statement.
Comcast recently invested 0 million in Vox Media via NBCUniversal, which it already owns.
Comcast had been scouting out investments in several new-media companies in recent months, as it seeks a way to turn around viewership numbers that show that younger audiences are not watching as much TV as past generations did.
“BuzzFeed and NBCUniversal will be great strategic partners and we both have a lot to offer the other”, said Kenneth Lerer, BuzzFeed’s executive chairman.
Vox is the 12-year-old digital media company behind SB Nation, Polygon, The Verge, Vox.com, Eater, Racked, Curbed and Re/code – majority popular among the millennial audience traditional media companies are trying to reach.
The investment follows Monday’s announcement that BuzzFeed would launch a Japanese news website in a partnership with Yahoo Japan, the latest step in a global expansion push.
Advertisement
The deal, which had been rumored and was announced on Tuesday, comes after a similar $200 million investment in Vox Media, known for running sports and technology news web sites.
