![]() ![]() It’s important to remember that only 18 months ago, the digital media industry was looking pretty bleak,” Bamford adds. “The pandemic had caused a drop of 30 percent-plus in their advertising revenue. Still, the SPAC mergers are giving these companies “a surprising lifeline that didn’t exist a year ago,” notes Ellie Bamford, the global head of media and connections at the consultancy R/ GA. A source says that one of the companies that held talks with the Group Nine SPAC is Vice Media, which is pursuing its own SPAC merger ( The Information reported that Vice is in “advanced talks” with another SPAC, 7GC & Co Holdings, and a source close to Vice says that the “financing process is still ongoing and we have had positive conversations with a range of investors.”) The goal is to merge Group Nine Media - owner of brands like The Dodo, NowThis and Thrillist - with the target company and take both public, resulting in, yes, more consolidation. Group Nine Media (led by CEO Ben Lerer, the son of BuzzFeed’s former chairman Ken Lerer) is taking a different but related approach, sponsoring a SPAC of its own. “We are hoping to really build an M&A machine,” said 890 5th Avenue exec Adam Rothstein in unveiling the deal. On June 24, BuzzFeed unveiled plans to go public via a SPAC called 890 5th Avenue Partners (named after the headquarters of Marvel’s Avengers), valuing the company at $1.5 billion and financing a deal to buy rival Complex Networks, which touts its reach among younger male consumers. BuzzFeed clearly is a household name, especially for many institutional investors that play the space,” Ives says. “There’s a lot of companies that go through SPACs, they don’t have the brand or name recognition. Some early investors may also use them as an exit strategy, even if they must sell at a slight loss. Investors, meanwhile, may see an opportunity to “play the growth game” by getting involved in a stock in its “second inning,” says Daniel Ives, the managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities. analyst Laura Martin, adding that merged companies can be more “efficient” because they can pare down expensive staff - such as lawyers - and allow engineers and others to focus their resources better. “Going public and rolling up this very fragmented audience is a good strategic goal, in my opinion,” says Needham & Co. BuzzFeed made the first SPAC move, but fellow digital giants Group Nine Media, BDG and Vice are all engaged in similar maneuvers for an IPO via a blank-check company. ![]()
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