Comcast's NBCUniversal Invests Another $200 Million in BuzzFeed

Comcast Corp.'s NBCUniversal is investing another $200 million in BuzzFeed, doubling its investment in the digital media company, according to people familiar with the matter.

The new investment gives BuzzFeed a post-money valuation at about $1.7 billion, the people said. Last year, NBCU invested the same amount in BuzzFeed at a post-money valuation of $1.5 billion, meaning that, excluding the new cash, the company's valuation is essentially unchanged.

Recode first reported the investment.

Typically, fast-growing startups look to raise their valuations significantly when they receive follow-on rounds of funding. When they don't, it can signal stress in their businesses or a change of expectations by the investor.

BuzzFeed missed its revenue projection for 2015 by an amount in the range of about 20%, forcing the company to cut its forecast for this year, one of the people said. BuzzFeed is on track this year to meet the new target, the person said.

"Our business has never been better," a BuzzFeed spokeswoman said.

An NBCUniversal spokeswoman declined to comment.

A new media darling, BuzzFeed has grown quickly through its focus on listicles, branded content and increasingly video.

But the company's results have been affected by a variety of factors including slower-than-anticipated growth in content-licensing revenue and the difficulties monetizing some platforms where it has a huge audience, such as Facebook, one of the people familiar with the matter said.

BuzzFeed isn't alone in facing these challenges—other highflying digital media companies are running into headwinds also.

The investment marks the latest effort by a TV giant to link up with a digital media company well versed in reaching the kind of young viewers fleeing the traditional cable bundle. NBCUniversal also invested $200 million in Vox Media last year around roughly the same time as the BuzzFeed investment. Walt Disney Co. has a significant interest in Vice Media, and Discovery Communications recently invested $100 million into a new digital venture that includes social media-geared publishers Thrillist and NowThis.

Write to Steven Perlberg at [e-mail] and Amol Sharma at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 20, 2016 21:25 ET (01:25 GMT)

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