NBCUniversal is finalizing a deal to invest an additional $200 million in BuzzFeed, one year after splashing the same sum of cash on the massively popular digital publisher, according a report published Thursday on Recode.
Citing sources close to the deal, Recode said that the latest round of investment values BuzzFeed at $1.7 billion. The post-money valuation in NBCU’s last go-round with BuzzFeed was $1.5 billion, indicating roughly the same value for the company, once the additional $200 million was factored in.
BuzzFeed fell short of its 2015 revenue goals, but the company shot down a Financial Times report that it cut its 2016 projections in half.
Earlier this year, BuzzFeed divided its editorial side into a news department, overseen by BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith, and an entertainment department, headed by Ze Frank, the president of BuzzFeed Motion Pictures.
While BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti said “this structure will allow us to be better at entertainment and better at news” in a staff memo announcing the move and compared it with Ted Turner’s successful stewardship of CNN and TBS, he acknowledged that the growing importance of digital video inspired the move.
“As digital video becomes ubiquitous, every major initiative at BuzzFeed around the world will find an expression as video, just like everything we do works on mobile and social platforms,” Peretti wrote.
An NBCUniversal spokeswoman declined to comment.
'Timeless,' 'This Is Us,' 'The Good Place': Watch Trailers for New NBC Series (Videos)
"Timeless": From Eric Kripke (“Revolution,” “Supernatural”), Shawn Ryan (“The Shield”) and the producers of “The Blacklist” comes this action-adventure series in which a mysterious criminal steals a secret state-of-the-art time machine, intent on destroying America as we know it by changing the past. Our only hope is an unexpected team: a scientist, soldier and history professor who must use the machine’s prototype to travel back in time to critical events. While they must make every effort not to affect the past themselves, they must also stay one step ahead of this dangerous fugitive. Can this handpicked team uncover the mystery behind it all and end his destruction before it’s too late?
"This Is Us": Sometimes life will surprise you. Starring Mandy Moore (“A Walk to Remember”), Milo Ventimiglia (“Heroes,” “Gilmore Girls”) and Sterling K. Brown (“The People V. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story),” this series follows a unique ensemble whose paths cross and their life stories intertwine in curious ways. We find several of them share the same birthday, and so much more than anyone would expect. From the writer and directors of “Crazy, Stupid, Love.” comes a dramedy that will challenge your everyday presumptions about the people you think you know.
"The Good Place": From Michael Schur, executive producer of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “Parks and Recreation” and “The Office,” comes a new comedy that follows Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell, “House of Lies,” “Veronica Mars”), an ordinary woman who, through an extraordinary string of events, enters the afterlife where she comes to realize that she hasn’t been a very good person. With the help of her wise newfound afterlife mentor (Ted Danson, “Bored to Death,” “Cheers”), she’s determined to shed her old way of living and discover the awesome (or at least the pretty good) person within. Directed by Drew Goddard, the Oscar-nominated writer of “The Martian.”
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Here’s your first look at the network’s fresh fall slate
"Timeless": From Eric Kripke (“Revolution,” “Supernatural”), Shawn Ryan (“The Shield”) and the producers of “The Blacklist” comes this action-adventure series in which a mysterious criminal steals a secret state-of-the-art time machine, intent on destroying America as we know it by changing the past. Our only hope is an unexpected team: a scientist, soldier and history professor who must use the machine’s prototype to travel back in time to critical events. While they must make every effort not to affect the past themselves, they must also stay one step ahead of this dangerous fugitive. Can this handpicked team uncover the mystery behind it all and end his destruction before it’s too late?
