Vice Media, the US-based media group backed by entertainment conglomerate Disney, broadcaster A&E Networks and public relations agency WPP, has raised $85m from existing investors, The Information reported on Tuesday.
Lupa Systems, the investment holding company for James Murdoch, contributed to the round as did investment firms TPG, TCV and Sixth Street Partners.
The investment will support Vice’s aim of achieving profitability, people familiar with the situation told The Information.
The company was in talks for a reverse merger deal with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) backed by 7GC & Co, a partnership between growth fund 7 Global Capital and SPAC sponsor Hennessy Capital. Those discussions have now come to a close, one of the people added.
As part of the deal, Vice co-founder Shane Smith has relinquished his voting control of the business but will remain chairman of the board.
Vice was founded in 1994 as a print magazine and has grown into a multimedia business that encompasses online content, books and television.
Lupa Systems had agreed to supply an undisclosed amount of funding to Vice in October 2019 in exchange for a small stake. That deal was related to a $70m capital injection from 2013 made by media group 21st Century Fox, which was later sold in a $71bn deal to Disney in early 2019.
TPG invested $450m into the business at a $5.7bn valuation in 2017.
Disney supplied $400m to Vice in 2015, while A&E Networks, which is partially owned by Disney, invested $250m the year before. TCV also provided an additional $250m just weeks after A&E Networks’ investment.
Vice picked up an undisclosed amount of funding from WPP, boutique merchant bank Raine Group and private investor Tom Freston in 2011.