Broadband communications and video services provider Altice USA agreed yesterday to acquire one of its portfolio companies, US-based entertainment network Cheddar, for $200m.
Cheddar operates an online television network that consists of two channels: Cheddar Business, which focuses on technology and the innovation ecosystem, and Cheddar News, which broadcasts general news stories.
The network is accessible through online streaming platforms such as DirecTV Now, Hulu, YouTube TV, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, Twitch and Amazon, and through more than half of smart televisions in the US.
The company also operates CheddarU, a network of some 1,600 television screens in gyms, cafeterias and the student unions of 600 university campuses. Its subsidiaries include RateMyProfessors, an online portal where students can review their lecturers.
Altice is buting Cheddar with a view to broadening its portfolio of news businesses, particularly for millennial audiences, and will integrate the company into its Altice News division. Cheddar’s founder and chief executive, Jon Steinberg, will lead Altice News.
The company had raised $54m in equity funding prior to the deal, most recently closing a $22m series D round in March 2018 that included media company Antenna Group, mass media group Liberty Global and Dentsu Ventures, a corporate venturing vehicle for marketing group Dentsu.
The series D round was led by Raine Ventures, the venture capital branch of merchant bank Raine, and included investment bank Goldman Sachs, 7 Global Capital, the family office of Kelly Loeffler and Jeff Sprecher, and all of Cheddar’s existing shareholders.
Raine Ventures led a $19m series C round for the company in 2017 that featured Altice, telecommunications group AT&T, e-commerce firm Amazon, exchange operator New York Stock Exchange and Comcast Ventures and Broadway Video Ventures, subsidiaries of mass media group Comcast and entertainment producer Broadway Video.
Ribbit Capital and Lightspeed Ventures also took part in the series C round, which followed a $10m series B the previous year led by Lightspeed with contributions from Comcast Ventures and Ribbit.
