The NBCUniversal family might be growing soon. In an attempt to focus more on digital content, the Comcast-owned company is poised to invest a whopping $250 million in Buzzfeed, which would value the extremely popular online publisher at $1.5 billion, according to ReCode. As part of the same initiative, NBCUniversal is also looking to up its 14 percent stake in Vox Media (which owns ReCode).
The news of NBCUniversal potentially opening its wallet to focus more on Internet content was first reported by The Wall Street Journal last week. In the report, Business Insider and Vice were also listed as companies NBCUniversal would look at to help its "reach" with younger people, according to Politico. Its not clear why NBCUniversal balked at the Business Insider, but concerning Vice, the Canadian site already has a massively lucrative deal with HBO.
In June, Buzzfeed had 80 million unique visits, more than half of which came from people between the ages of 18 and 34, according to The New York Times. Similarly, Vox posted less unique visits (54 million), but still 41 percent came from that demographic that is vital to a primarily television-minded company like NBCUniversal.
ReCode notes that even though the deal can fall apart before anything officially happens, Buzzfeed and NBCUniversal have already made a "handshake" agreement.
The companies that may soon be owned by NBCUniversal are already quite prestigious. Vox Media itself is a family of digital sites, which includes sports giant SB Nation and tech/pop culture site The Verge. Buzzfeed's trademarks are quizzes and lists, but it has a budding news division as well. The site was almost acquired by Disney last year, when it totalled more than $100 million in revenue. Prior to founding Buzzfeed, its CEO Jonah Peretti co-founded The Huffington Post.
As much as the deal would help NBCUniversal, Peretti has expressed his interest in having his content hosted on other forms of media, not just digital.
"Television and film are areas that could be initial places where we could experiment," Peretti said at the ReCode's Code Conference in May.
