NBCUniversal takes $200 million stake in Vox Media
NBCUniversal announced Wednesday that it is going to take a $200 million stake in Vox Media, a move that will give the traditional media giant instant access to some of the web's hotter sites and new outlets for its entertainment and news content.
The deal is only the latest investment in Vox, which is becoming a major player in digital media alongside other relative newcomers like Buzzfeed and Vice. In December, Vox was said to be valued at about $380 million and it has been making moves to grow quickly in contrast to many legacy media companies.
Vox's mostly special-interest sites include SB Nation for sports, Polygon for gaming, Vox.com for general-interest news, Eater for food, Racked for fashion and shopping, Curbed for real estate and The Verge for tech news. In May, Vox announced the acquisition of Re/Code, another tech news site. At the time, it said it had 116 million unique visitors a month to all its sites.
By partnering with NBCUniversal, Vox will be able to further its goal of growing in video.
"Vox Media has strong leadership, top editorial talent and a unique technology platform," says Steve Burke, CEO of NBCUniversal in a statement. "We are excited to be making this investment and building a collaborative partnership involving editorial content, advertising and technology."
The deal immediately will help NBCUniversal leverage its content while giving Vox more sources of high-value programming in subjects that it believes will mesh well with its properties.
"NBCUniversal's valuable family of properties align especially well with Vox Media's authoritative, voice-driven brands which span sports, tech, news, fashion, food, and more," says Jim Bankoff, CEO of Vox Media in a statement. "We are extraordinarily excited to collaborate in many areas including video programming, brand advertising, cross-promotion, and platform technology to grow existing properties and launch new franchises."
Vox has come far since being founded in 2003 as a baseball fan blog about the Oakland Athletics. It shook up the media world last year when it hired former Washington Post writer Ezra Klein to launch its own in-depth news site, Vox.com.
Vox is said to have raised $46.5 million from investment firm General Atlantic in December.