Disney is reported to have offered to buy BuzzFeed, but walked away after BuzzFeed asked for over $1 billion.
According to CNN Money, the offer to acquire the social media startup was made earlier this year but acquisition talks broke down when BuzzFeed asked for a price above a staggering $1 billion.
The New York based company headed by Jonah Peretti and John Johnson has raised $46.3 million to-date, with its last round of of $19.3 million in January 2013 valuing the company at $200 million.
According to the CNN report:
Disney wasn’t as interested in dropping ten figures for BuzzFeed, largely because the strategic fit isn’t as tight. Disney focuses on acquiring and aggregating intellectual property, which it can monetize through many channels like licensing, merchandising, TV, games, animation and theme parks.
BuzzFeed has gone from reposting content from Reddit (which it still does) into a burgeoning serious media company, complete with its own reporters covering (actually serious) news of the world, while still posting Photoshop mashups of people with Quokkas.
Investors, including Hearst Ventures, Softbank Capital, Lerer Ventures, RRE Ventures, SV Angel, Founder Collective and New Enterprise Associates however will be looking for an exit soon: a six year old company without a buyout would be getting long in the tooth for fickle Silicon Valley investors who usually look for a 3-5 year cash out.
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