AAA Group Nine Media sugarcoats PopSugar

Group Nine Media sugarcoats PopSugar

PopSugar, a US-based women’s lifestyle media brand potentially backed by mass media group Comcast NBCUniversal, was bought by digital media holding company Group Nine Media for an undisclosed sum on Monday.

The deal comes in the wake of a corporate-backed $50m round for Group Nine in September 2019 that was earmarked for strategic acquisitions.

Founded in 2006 as Sugar Publishing, PopSugar runs an online news portal anchored by celebrity, lifestyle and fashion-oriented articles. It also provides software tools enabling its marketing partners to send out mobile content and promotional offers.

Group Nine Media now owns five digital media brands together followed by 200 million social media accounts and with a potential market reach of about 70% of US millennials, it said. The merger is expected to add PopSugar’s strengths in commerce strategy and producing experiential content.

PopSugar had accrued more than $46m of funding altogether, including a $10m series B round in 2007 led by what was then NBCUniversal and backed by existing investor Sequoia Capital.

PopSugar subsequently raised $16m in a 2009 round involving Sequoia Capital that enabled it to repurchase some of NBCUniversal’s stake, though it is unclear whether the corporate retained any equity.

E-commerce firm Rakuten was reportedly poised to buy Popsugar in 2015. The deal never materialised, although Rakuten did pick up PopSugar’s ShopStyle online shopping portal in 2017 through its Ebates cashback subsidiary.

Brian Sugar, founder and chief executive of Popsugar, said: “Over the past few years, we have gotten Popsugar to profitability and found a way to build a well-diversified business that has outlasted many of our competitors in a rapidly evolving space.

“Joining forces with a company and team that has the ambition, momentum, and market leadership of Group Nine, combined with our experience and innovation in commerce and experiential, will allow us to build a scalable business model that sets the standard for the next-generation media company.”

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