Buzzfeed to acquire HuffPost in Verizon deal

Under the terms of the deal, Verizon will maintain a minority stake in HuffPost and will make a cash investment in Buzzfeed.

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Buzzfeed Inc. will be acquiring HuffPost, formerly the Huffington Post, the Wall Street Journal reports. The acquisition is part of a stock deal with Verizon Media, HuffPosts's current parent company.

Under the terms of the deal, Verizon will maintain a minority stake in HuffPost and will make a cash investment in Buzzfeed. Buzzfeed and HuffPost will jointly syndicate content and explore advertising opportunities together according to the deal.

While both HuffPost and Buzzfeed were growing rapidly in the mid-2010s, their growth has been stunted in recent years by declining revenue and readership, leading to both companies laying off employees and Buzzfeed shutting down their operations in Australia and the UK completely.

Such decline has been accelerated by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, reducing advertising dollars spent on social media as many businesses remain shuttered. The decline in advertisement revenue adds pressure as companies such as Facebook and Google continue to accrue most of the revenue made from advertising.

Buzzfeed and Huffpost said in a joint statement that their audiences overlap and that the acquisition and subsequent coordination will benefit both companies.

The combined company will be run by Jonah Peretti, the founder and CEO of Buzzfeed. Peretti was a founder of the Huffington Post, making his acquisition of the online news aggregator a return to the past for him.

According to Verizon CEO Guru Gowrappan, he and Peretti came up with the idea of the two companies working together at a meeting in Las Vegas. The initial idea was not for Buzzfeed to acquire HuffPost, however, and the deal was reached after several months of talks.

"BuzzFeed was the right partner," Gowrappan said.

Verizon Media acquired the Huffington Post in 2015 when the company acquired AOL for $4.4 billion. AOL had purchased the news aggregator four years earlier for $315 million. Other properties of Verizon Media include Yahoo! and TechCrunch.

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Join and support independent free thinkers!

We’re independent and can’t be cancelled. The establishment media is increasingly dedicated to divisive cancel culture, corporate wokeism, and political correctness, all while covering up corruption from the corridors of power. The need for fact-based journalism and thoughtful analysis has never been greater. When you support The Post Millennial, you support freedom of the press at a time when it's under direct attack. Join the ranks of independent, free thinkers by supporting us today for as little as $1.

Support The Post Millennial

Remind me next month

To find out what personal data we collect and how we use it, please visit our Privacy Policy

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy
ADVERTISEMENT
© 2024 The Post Millennial, Privacy Policy | Do Not Sell My Personal Information