Verizon Media, a subsidiary of Verizon Communication has sold the site of theHuffington Post to BuzzFeed, the most viral information site on the web.
The price of the operation has not been disclosed, but the agreement would contemplate one share exchange between the two companies, as well as content sharing, digital platforms, advertising, including web syndication and e-commerce services. As revealed by the Wall Street Journal, when the sale is formalized, Verizon Media will make an investment in Buzzfeed and will become a minority shareholder.
“With the addition of Huffington Post, our media network will have more users spending far more time with our content than any of our peers,” commented BuzzFeed's CEO, Jonah Peretti, who founded both Huffington Post and Buzzfeed.
Huffington Post was bought by AOL (America On Line) almost 10 years ago for 315 million dollars, an operation that had attracted everyone's attention, considered a turning point in the world of journalism and digital media. In 2015 AOL was in turn acquired by Verizon Media (in turn controlled by Verizon Communications), a company that in addition to Huffington Post manages Yahoo! and TechCrunch.
As noted CNN, Buzzfeed's acquisition of the Huffington Post site is just the latest in a series of deals between digital media companies trying to compete against Hi-Tech giants like Google and Facebook. In September of 2019, Vox Media acquired New York Media. The following month, Vice Media acquired Refinery29.
However, the operation announced today comes at a time when, due to the crisis triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic, Buzzfeed, like many organizations active in the media sector, has adopted a 30 million cost reduction plan which has established layoffs and permits , employee wage cuts. In early November though, Peretti told staff the company plans to hit profitability.
