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Vice Media scores $450 million investment, takes valuation to $5.7 billion

By | Published on Tuesday 20 June 2017

Vice

Vice Media has secured $450 million of new finance from private equity firm TPG. This now puts the company’s valuation at $5.7 billion.

The new money will allow the company to “build up the largest millennial video library in the world”, says CEO Shane Smith, whatever that means. When your business is worth $5.7 billion you don’t have to make sense. Topics and genres included in that ‘millennial video library’ will include “news, food, music, fashion, art, travel, gaming, lifestyle, scripted and feature films”, he added.

A specific focus will be “scripted multi-screen programming”, with the aim to become “the go-to home for the next generation of great storytellers in feature films and scripted episodic content across the world”.

Noting the challenges facing advertising-funded media in the digital age, Smith said: “Media is probably at its most dynamic, most evolutionary time in its history. With Facebook and Google taking an ever-growing piece of the online advertising pie, looming ‘skinny bundles’ and OTT/DTC offerings exploding the media status quo – networks have to be nimble, smart and fast moving”.

Remember, there’s no obligation for Shane to make sense. The exact terms of Vice’s deal with TPG, and what stake it will take in the company, have not been made clear. In recent years, Vice has secured investment from Disney and 21st Century Fox, among others.



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