Greek broadcaster Antenna is seeking an acquisition of Vice Media, according to three people familiar with the matter of discussing private negotiations on anonymous terms. A transaction that completes a long-standing business relationship between the two companies.
Antenna was the only one to show interest in Vice riding the optimistic wave of digital media in 2017 with a spectacular $ 5.7 billion valuation before fighting the wider headwinds the sector is facing. Not a potential buyer. There is no guarantee that the antenna will buy a vise or that there will be no transactions.
An antenna spokesman declined to comment.
The deal with Antenna closes the chapter on Vice, which was born in the 1990s as an edgy magazine based in Montreal. Over the next 20 years, Vice and its co-founder Shane Smith will become an international media company with the ambition to convince good advertisers and investors to take on established players in publishing and entertainment. I participated in Vice’s quest to become.
One of those supporters was the Greek media company Antenna Group, which launched a joint venture with Greek Vice in 2014. The company renewed and expanded its contract with Vice in 2019 and helped launch ViceWorld News, an international news venture.
In recent years, Vice has focused on diversifying its revenue streams and expanding its Vice Studio business, advertising agencies, Virtue, and global news collection. According to someone familiar with the issue, these units helped boost the company’s performance and achieve profitability in the last few quarters.
On Thursday, Vice Media announced that it had been nominated for 33 Emmy Awards in the News and Documentary category.
Previous information report Vice hired an advisor to consider selling the studio business. CNBC report Vice Media was considering selling the entire business, and The Wall Street Journal report Group Black, a media company focused on Black’s ownership, was looking for a deal with Vice.
Last year, the vice president, like many digital news companies, considered plans to make it public through transactions with special purpose acquisition companies. This was seen as an easier way to go public than a traditional initial public offering. However, the poor performance of many of the companies used to publish the SPAC has diminished their enthusiasm for the SPAC on Wall Street. Raised funds instead From investors.
Among those investors were TPG, an antenna and private equity firm, and Rupert Murdoch, an investment firm in James Murdoch, the son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
