Gizmodo to acquire for the second time in 4 years / Boing Boing

"Private equity firm Great Hill Partners has agreed to acquire Gizmodo Media Group from Univision, forming a new company headed by digital media chief Jim Spanfeller," said Benjamin Mullin of The Wall Street Journal.

Extract:

For the second time in four years, the former group Gizmodo Media, housing both the eponymous technology site, as well as Deadspin, Jezebel, The Onion, the Root and ClickHole, among others, has a new owner. Great Hill Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm, has entered into an agreement to acquire Gizmodo Media Group from Univision for significantly less than the $ 135 million Univision paid in 2016 to acquire the most properties of Gizmodo.

Sensational.

The WSJ had previously reported that this deal was a potential option for GMG. Madison Malone Kircher of NYMag writes:

In addition, for the second time in as many years, the company will change its name. Gizmodo Media Group will now be known as G / O Media Inc. – a nod to Gizmodo and Onion, two GMG properties. His new boss will be Jim Spanfeller, who has worked for Forbes.com, PC Magazine and RealClearPolitics.

Spanfeller sent an email to his notoriously independent new staff this morning, in which he declared that he was eager to meet everyone and answer their (probably a lot) questions. Of particular note is editorial independence: "While editorial independence is paramount, a healthy, productive partnership with the private sector is needed to make the company a success," writes Spanfeller. "Without the public, we have nothing to offer advertisers, e-commerce partners, or subscription efforts. And without the revenues from these sources, we have no way of funding the content and those who create it that attract this audience in the first place. "He also explained that he wanted to establish a new set of values ​​for the company and present a rough draft of his ideas." Feel free to help make these better and maybe no longer listening to G / O Media. "

And it's gone.

Here's an excerpt from Spanfeller's email:

· We are action oriented. Faced with an option of action vs. in-action, we always choose to DO SOMETHING.

· We believe in our people. We respect our teammates. We know that if they "do something," they will often do the right thing.

· We are ambitious As a company and as individuals. We want our employees to always take a new step in everything they do and what we do. TO BE OBJECTIVE ORIENTED.

· We respect and appreciate our customers. Without visitors, we would not have any marketing partners. Without marketing partners, we could not serve our users. To protect these two very important groups, we work WITH THE GREATEST LEVELS OF INTEGRITY. In the way we provide the content and in the way we conduct our daily business activities.

· We want our work environment to be one where people can BE PASSIONATE AND FUN.

LOL.

D & # 39; AGREEMENT.

Rafat Ali tweeted the best.

<! –

->