Canada- based digital media company Vice Media, is close to finalising the sale of a 10% stake to cable television group A&E Networks, which is co-owned by media companies Walt Disney and Hearst Corporation.
A&E is to pay $250m for a 10% stake, which would value Vice at $2.5bn, the Financial Times has reported.
Vice is a network of digital channels that cover a mixture of domestic and international news, pop and underground culture coverage, music and technology.
As part of the deal, Vice will produce digital and cable programming for A&E.
Vice recently ended talks with Time Warner of the sale of a stake, which would have valued the media group at $2bn.
This latest stake sale has almost double Vice’s valuation. Last year, Vice sold a 5% stake to 21st Century Fox for $70m, which then put the company’s worth at $1.4bn.
Shane Smith, chief executive of Vice, described the deal with A&E as “great” and said it means Vice “can preserve our independence and it gives us a war chest for another three years of dramatic growth”.
In 2011 the company raised an undisclosed amount after selling a minority of its equity to a consortium including UK-based advertising company WPP.