Group Nine Media said Monday it was buying the women-focused digital lifestyle publisher PopSugar in an all-stock deal.
Terms were not disclosed, but The Wall Street Journal said the deal gives PopSugar, founded by the husband-and-wife team of Lisa and Brian Sugar, a valuation of over $300 million.
Group Nine CEO Ben Lerer had landed an infusion of $50 million last month from backers Axel Springer, the Berlin-based publishing giant, and cable company Discovery Inc., which he said at the time would be for internal growth and acquisitions.
PopSugar currently has about 300 employees, down from 450 several years ago, following the February 2017 divestment of Shop Style to e-commerce company eBates.
Brian and Lisa Sugar are joining the executive team at Group Nine.
It is the latest roll-up among digital publishers seeking to build scale to help battle the advertising behemoths Google and Facebook.
In recent weeks, Vice Media said it was acquiring Refinery 29 and Vox Media announced a deal to buy New York Media, which owns New York magazine and related websites.
“When we started Group Nine almost three years ago by combining Thrillist, NowThis, The Dodo and Seeker, we foresaw the impending consolidation of the industry and set out to create a model for the next-generation media company with significant scale, deeply loyal and engaged audiences, multiplatform expertise and highly diversified revenue,” said Lerer.
“PopSugar hugely expands our reach within an important demographic.”
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