BuzzFeed announced Thursday that the company will complete a merger and go public.
The 15-year-old digital media company will be merging with the publicly traded special purpose acquisition company 890 Fifth Avenue Partners, CNBC reported. BuzzFeed estimated its value to be $1.5 billion after the deal is completed, likely in the fourth quarter of 2021.
BuzzFeed will also pay $300 million – $200 million in cash and $100 million of equity in BuzzFeed – for the digital publisher Complex Networks. The company said that Complex Networks will “immediately accelerate BuzzFeed’s revenue growth,” according to CNBC. BuzzFeed co-founder and chief Jonah Peretti also told CNBC that the deal could help put the company in a better position to acquire other digital media companies in the future.
There are a “lot of other attractive opportunities out there,” Peretti said according to the report. (RELATED: BuzzFeed Just Fired This Reporter. Here’s Why)
BuzzFeed, the 15-year-old digital media company known for its lists, quizzes and its Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism, announced Thursday that it plans to go public at an estimated valuation of $1.5 billion. https://t.co/2xi2h3xS6B
— Kerry Flynn ???? (@kerrymflynn) June 24, 2021
“With today’s announcement, we’re taking the next step in BuzzFeed’s evolution, bringing capital and additional experience to our business,” he added in a Thursday statement.
In 2020, BuzzFeed earned $321 million in revenue, and it is estimating revenue of $654 million in 2022, an investor presentation showed according to CNBC. The company also acquired news company HuffPost in November for an undisclosed amount.
Just weeks after BuzzFeed acquired HuffPost, nearly 30% of HuffPost’s union – 47 employees – were abruptly laid off. Peretti said that the layoffs would “fast-track the path to profitability,” but the HuffPost union slammed the decision in a statement, saying they “never got a fair shot to prove our worth.”