The price is slight
Group Nine-Vox deal value looks to disappoint
VOX Media and Group Nine are keeping the value of their merger private — and that may be because the number isn’t as eye-popping as digital-media darlings once commanded, On the Money has learned.
Sources say Group Nine’s worth has slumped to $225 million, less than half of the $585 million it touted in 2016 when it got a $100 million investment from Discovery. Likewise, Vox — which was valued at $1 billion in its last funding round in 2015 — was valued at approximately $672 million, according to informed sources.
Add up the latest figures and you get roughly $896 million — short of the $1 billion “unicorn” status that each company had hoped to achieve on its own.
“It’s very telling that in no place they mention a dollar value for the combined company,” one insider said of the announcement of the tie-up.
The bloom is largely off the rose when it comes to digitalmedia companies, industrywatchers said. “In this current market environment, the deal between Group Nine and Vox is like two drunks leaning together to stand up,” a source said.
“Still, I’d rather be in Group Nine’s position than BuzzFeed right now,” the source said of the onetime digital wunderkind that went public via a SPAC deal in early December; since then, its stock has tanked by more than 40 percent.
Given BuzzFeed’s performance, Group Nine insiders likely are breathing a sigh of relief that their deal was private — and the public markets won’t be there to beat down their shares.
“All these companies are in trouble and challenged,” LightShed Partners analyst Rich Greenfield told The Post. “Digital media publishing is getting harder by the day.”
People close to the company say the tie-up likely is a concession that neither company could find a path to profitability on its own — and only by combining will they be able to make money. The all-stock transaction is expected to close in early 2022.
Press reps for the deal declined to comment.