E-commerce company Rakuten is set to acquire US-based online media network in a $580m deal, TechCrunch reported today, citing a person familiar with the matter.
Founded in 2006, Popsugar runs a celebrity-oriented online news site with 41 million unique visitors each month. The company, which has raised about $46m in total venture funding, had reportedly been seeking a buyer for the last two months.
Entertainment company NBC Universal led a $10m series B round for Popsugar, then known as Sugar Publishing, in 2007, only to sell its shares back to the company two years later after Sugar had taken back advertising sales to NBC Universal.
Venture capital firm Institutional Venture Partners led Popsugar’s last round, a 2011 series D that raised $15m, but Popsugar’s largest investor was another VC firm, Sequoia Capital, which had been a backer since series A stage.
The acquisition will comprise the latest in a series of big money deals struck by Rakuten in a bid to set down roots in the US market.
Rakuten agreed a $410m deal to buy e-book and audiobook platform OverDrive last month, which was sealed days after it provided $300m of the $530m raised by taxi hailing app Lyft in its series E round.