NBCUniversal acquires stake in VoxMedia

On Wednesday, Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal announced that it is making a strategic investment of $200 million in VoxMedia. Through this investment, it is increasing its stake in the digital media firm and also, creating a partnership to help the company to better connect with younger audiences.

Post-money valuation of the investment for Vox is around $1 billion. Comcast was already having around 14% of Vox and with the recent deal, it will increase its holdings, but then also it would remain a minority investor.

For now, the exact size of Comcast’s ownership stake is not clear. NBCUniversal is no different from other media companies and it also had to struggle hard with decline in viewership. Situation is this that younger audiences have been increasingly watching content online.

VoxMedia has eight websites that focus on different genres like sports, politics, food, fashion and technology. It has gained viewership and lot of young readers has been attracted to it.

Steve Burke, CEO of NBCUniversal, was of the view, “Vox Media has strong leadership, top editorial talent and a unique technology platform. We are excited to be making this investment and building a collaborative partnership involving editorial content, advertising and technology”.

It has been seen that Comcast has been looking out to make investments in many new-media companies. With the investment, Vox will witness a significant boost in its video capabilities and potential distribution channels, said Vox Chairman and Chief Executive Jim Bankoff.