Complex Acquired By NTWRK With Some Help From Universal Music Group

Complex Networks is one of the largest media and entertainment companies in the United States right now. Founded as bi-monthly magazine Complex by fashion designer Marc (Ecko) Milecofsky in 2002, it has now grown into one of the biggest sources of youth culture in the US, if not the world. Thus, you can understand why its acquisition from its parent compant BuzzFeed, Inc. would be such a hot topic. Especially since NTWRK is acquiring it, with a little help from Universal Music Group.

NTWRK and Universal Music Group Acquires Complex: Details

The Hollywood Reporter has just announced that BuzzFeed has just sold its Complex divison to NTWRK. Well, NTWRK and Universal Music Group, technically. See, while NTWRK are the ones officially acquiring Complex, Universal Music Group are among the biggest of its investors. So it’s not surprising to learn that Universal Music Group have some stake in this deal.

So how much money did this acquisition involve, you might ask? Well, technically speaking, neither Complex nor NTWRK have released any official press release concerning those details. However, The Hollywood Reporter reveals that in the same article, mentioning that NTWRK paid $108.6 million USD (plus an additional $5.7 million USD tied to office space and severance costs) as part of an all-cash deal, all for a grand total of $114.3 million USD.

To most people, that sum of cash sounds like a lot. However, it’s but a drop in the bucket compared to how much BuzzFeed originally paid for that division. See, back in 2021, BuzzFeed acquired Complex from Verizon and Hearst for a grand total of just under $300 million USD, which included $198 million USD in cash and $96 million USD in stock. This acquisition effectively represents a massive loss for BuzzFeed, and it’s likely that this move is to avoid losing further money.

Fortunately, BuzzFeed will still retain First We Feast, the Complex food content brand that produces the hit YouTube series Hot Ones, but that’s it. We’ll have to wait for BuzzFeed, Complex, or NTWRK to give us more details about this at a later date. Tune back in to THS to find out more about this acquisition when we do.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter