Comcast's NBCUniversal Invests Another $200 Million in BuzzFeed
October 20 2016 - 7:42PM
Dow Jones News
By Steven Perlberg and Amol Sharm
Comcast Corp.'s NBCUniversal is investing another $200 million
in BuzzFeed, doubling its investment in the digital media company,
according to people familiar with the matter.
The new investment gives BuzzFeed a post-money valuation at
about $1.7 billion, the people said. Last year, NBCU invested the
same amount in BuzzFeed at a post-money valuation of $1.5 billion,
meaning that, excluding the new cash, the company's valuation is
essentially unchanged.
Recode first reported the investment.
Typically, fast-growing startups look to raise their valuations
significantly when they receive follow-on rounds of funding. When
they don't, it can signal stress in their businesses or a change of
expectations by the investor.
BuzzFeed missed its revenue projection for 2015 by an amount in
the range of about 20%, forcing the company to cut its forecast for
this year, one of the people said. BuzzFeed is on track this year
to meet the new target, the person said.
"Our business has never been better," a BuzzFeed spokeswoman
said.
An NBCUniversal spokeswoman declined to comment.
A new media darling, BuzzFeed has grown quickly through its
focus on listicles, branded content and increasingly video.
But the company's results have been affected by a variety of
factors including slower-than-anticipated growth in
content-licensing revenue and the difficulties monetizing some
platforms where it has a huge audience, such as Facebook, one of
the people familiar with the matter said.
BuzzFeed isn't alone in facing these challenges -- other
highflying digital media companies are running into headwinds
also.
The investment marks the latest effort by a TV giant to link up
with a digital media company well versed in reaching the kind of
young viewers fleeing the traditional cable bundle. NBCUniversal
also invested $200 million in Vox Media last year around roughly
the same time as the BuzzFeed investment. Walt Disney Co. has a
significant interest in Vice Media, and Discovery Communications
recently invested $100 million into a new digital venture that
includes social media-geared publishers Thrillist and NowThis.
Write to Steven Perlberg at steven.perlberg@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 20, 2016 19:27 ET (23:27 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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