Digital media companies eyed special purpose acquisition companies - also known as SPACs or blank-check companies - as a way to go public quickly. With no strategic buyer available, merging with each other using publicly traded stock could give VC and PE shareholders a chance to cash out of investments that were well past the standard hold time of seven years. By the end of the decade, after seeing the value of those investments fall, legacy media companies made it clear to digital media executives that they weren't interested in being acquirers. NBCUniversal put a similar amount into BuzzFeed. Disney invested more than $400 million in Vice. Large legacy media companies such as Disney and Comcast 's NBCUniversal invested hundreds of millions in digital media in the early and mid-2010s. Second, longtime shareholders wanted to exit their investments. Cost-cutting from M&A synergies was an added benefit for investors. Adding sites and brands under one corporate umbrella would boost overall eyeballs for advertisers. First, digital media companies needed more scale to compete with Facebook and Google for digital advertising dollars. "If BuzzFeed and five of the other biggest companies were combined into a bigger digital media company, you would probably be able to get paid more money," Peretti told The New York Times in November 2018, kicking off a multiyear effort to consolidate. Pushed by venture capitalist and private equity investors who had made sizeable investments in the industry during the 2010s, companies such as BuzzFeed, Vice, Vox Media, Group Nine, and Bustle Digital Group, or BDG, were talking to each other, in various combinations, about merging to gain scale. Disney CEO Bob Iger said the word "brand" more than 25 times at a Morgan Stanley media conference this month.įrom late 2018 to early 2022, the digital media industry had a shared goal. After losing nearly half their market values, or more, in 2022, those companies have emphasized what makes them different, whether it be distribution, brand or quality of programming, after years of global expansion and mega-mergers. What's happening in the digital media space echoes trends from the biggest media companies, including Netflix, Disney and Warner Bros. "We're in this period now where we should just focus on innovating for the future and building more efficient, stronger, better companies." "Right now, everyone's trying to get through a tougher market by focusing on their strengths," BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti said in an interview with CNBC. For the moment, executives have decided that more concentrated investment is better than attempts to gain scale. "The era of trying to put these companies together is over, and I don't think it's coming back."Ī 90% decline in BuzzFeed shares since the company went public in 2021, a failed sales process from Vice, the collapse of special purpose acquisition companies, and a choppy advertising market have made digital media executives rethink their companies' futures. "What you're finding is companies are trying to find a non-substitutable core," said Jonathan Miller, the CEO of Integrated Media, which specializes in digital media investments. Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or LowerĪfter years of focusing on consolidating to better compete with Google and Facebook for digital advertising dollars, many of the most well-known digital media companies have abandoned consolidation efforts to concentrate on differentiation. Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit
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