The digital media landscape is shifting further, with BuzzFeed selling its Complex division to the livestream shopping platform NTWRK in a $108.6 million all-cash deal (plus an additional $5.7 million tied to office space and severance costs).
The deal marks a retreat for BuzzFeed, which acquired Complex Networks in 2021 for just under $300 million, including $198 million in cash and $96 million in stock. BuzzFeed will retain First We Feast, the Complex food content brand that produces the hit YouTube series Hot Ones, and it says that BuzzFeed, First We Feast, HuffPost and Tasty will operate independently of each other, with their own strategies and revenue lines.
The sale will bring NTWRK and Complex together in a new company, with Main Street Advisors, Jimmy Iovine, Universal Music Group, and Goldman Sachs among its investors. The company also inked a strategic partnership with UMG, which will “collaborate with the new company to deliver industry-leading and culture-moving experiences and exclusive collaborations, direct to passionate music fans in groundbreaking and authentic ways.”
“It immediately gives us a diversified business model that has multiple revenue streams and makes it more resilient to the current headwinds that digital media faces,” said Aaron Levant, the new CEO of Complex, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“I think as time has gone on, there’s been a lot of publishers who aspire to get into shopping, or a lot of commerce platforms and aspire to get into media storytelling to drive more commerce,” Levant added. “And really, instead of trying to build a new core competency, it’s really about bringing two organizations together that have those key core competencies and speak to the same consumer by bringing all of the passions or interests for both editorial and kind of together on one platform.”
NTWRK has worked with talent like BLACKPINK, Post Malone and F1 star Lewis Hamilton on partnerships, while Complex is focused on the culture around sneakers, streetwear and collectibles.
The new Complex will, per Levant, be a throwback to its early days after it was founded by Marc Eckō in 2016, and that commerce, live events (like its flagship ComplexCon) and editorial will each make up about a third of its business.
“We’re going to focus in the places where Complex started if you look at Complex’s original ethos, if you go back to the print magazine, it was half editorial with big celebrities and then half — it was literally on the cover — a men’s buyers guide,” Levant said. “It was all about the coolest sneakers you could buy, the best streetwear, etc. So we’re kind of going to bring back that buyer’s guide ethos into the content. But we’re also going to be producing more premium content with a bunch of celebrities.”
BuzzFeed, once a darling of digital media (the company came thisclose to selling to Disney for $650 million) had a market cap of just over $30 million, as of writing. It shut down its BuzzFeed News division last year as it pivoted to a focus on creators.
The company says it will use the cash from the sale of Complex to redeem a portion of its 2026 convertible notes, to pay off its revolving credit facility in full, to optimize working capital and to finance the strategic restructuring that the company also announced Wednesday, which will see it shed 16 percent of its workforce.
“The sale of Complex represents an important strategic step for BuzzFeed, Inc. as we adapt our business to be more profitable, more nimble, and more innovative,” said BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti. “This is also an opportunity to unlock greater value for the Complex brand by combining it with NTWRK’s expansive, commerce-driven business.”
The result of the deal will be two more focused companies, one based on news, food and pop culture at BuzzFeed, and one based on fashion, sneakers, streetwear and pop culture at Complex.
“Aaron – along with Jamie and Gaston [NTWRK co-founders Jamie Iovine and Gaston Dominguez-Letelier] – is building an incredible platform and this acquisition will exponentially accelerate its growth,” said Jimmy Iovine, the founder of Interscope Records and Beats by Dre, in a statement. “Combining the power and reach of Complex with the NTWRK engine serving creators across music, fashion, and art will be transformative for the next generation of consumer technology.”
“We are proud to be early investors in NTWRK and to be investing again to bring them together with Complex,” added Paul Wachter, CEO and Founder of Main Street Advisors. “The combination of these two very creative and innovative teams will build a business designed for the future of content and commerce as well as artist and audience.”