By Katherine Hamilton
BuzzFeed said media mogul Byron Allen has agreed to pay $120 million for a majority stake in the digital media company.
Allen, whose company Allen Media Group owns The Weather Channel and more than 30 network affiliate broadcast channels, plans to acquire 40 million shares for $3 apiece, BuzzFeed said Monday.
Upon closing, Allen's affiliate Allen Family Digital will own 52% of BuzzFeed's outstanding shares. The deal will be funded with $20 million in cash and a $100 million promissory note due five years from closing, which will accrue 5% in annual interest.
The deal is set to close at the end of May, BuzzFeed said.
Allen will also take over as chief executive and chair, succeeding BuzzFeed founder Jonah Peretti.
Peretti will transition to a newly created role as president of BuzzFeed AI. The company has upped its investments in artificial intelligence recently. It said earlier this year it plans to spin off a company that has been developing a series of social apps based on AI experiments done at BuzzFeed.
The company, once popular for its online quizzes and news, said in recent filing it missed a deadline for a $5 million debt repayment. It extended the due date to May 18. It said if it couldn't make the payment by that date, it would go into default on its loans, potentially resulting in a bankruptcy filing.
BuzzFeed also issued a going concern warning in March, saying it lacked the resources to fund its cash obligations.
Write to Katherine Hamilton at katherine.hamilton@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 11, 2026 17:18 ET (21:18 GMT)
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