One Digital Media Giant Acquires Another

BuzzFeed is buying HuffPost from Verizon as part of a bigger deal that has the wireless giant investing in the digital-media company, per the AP. BuzzFeed and Verizon did not disclose terms of the deal. Verizon will be a minority shareholder in BuzzFeed, and the two companies will partner on content and ads. A downturn in advertising due to the pandemic has hurt both traditional and digital-only media organizations, resulting in layoffs and furloughs. Digital newsrooms had been consolidating even before the pandemic, including Vox's purchase of New York Magazine and its digital arms.

Verizon came to own HuffPost, co-founded by Arianna Huffington, through its acquisition of AOL in 2015. The country's biggest wireless provider also bought Yahoo in 2017 in an attempt to build a digital media business that could challenge Facebook. That Verizon Media business has struggled. BuzzFeed is known for its quizzes and lists but also invested in its news division. Its founder and CEO, Jonah Peretti, also co-founded HuffPost, then known as the Huffington Post, in 2005. AOL bought it for $315 million in 2011. Peretti said in a memo to BuzzFeed employees that he expects the deal to close at the beginning of 2021.

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