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Vox Media buys Kara Swisher's tech trade publication Recode
(Rick Smolan) Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher
Vox Media, owner of SB Nation and The Verge, has acquired Re/code in an all-stock deal.
Re/code was founded 18 months ago by Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg who raised a few million dollars from investors like NBC Universal (owned by Comcast). The deal size was not disclosed, however based on the size of its readership (about 2.5 million monthly uniques) and its initial fundraise, we assume the deal was valued at less than $50 million.
Swisher did not immediately return Business Insider's request for comment but she told The New York Times being a small publication — even one that's influential — is tough.
"Everybody is bigger than us," Swisher told NYT's Sydney Ember. "
It’s not a secret that being a smaller fish is really hard." (Quantcast) Recode's monthly unique visitors since its launch in early 2014.
Re/code generates most of its revenue through its events business, not advertising, which pulls in A-list executive speakers such as Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook. It will likely become Vox's conference arm and its brand will stay intact.
The company was essentially the continuation of AllThingsD, which was owned by Dow Jones, a News Corp subsidiary and publisher of the Wall Street Journal, where Mossberg was a tech product reviewer.
Swisher and Mossberg spun it out as part of an independent entity, Revere Digital, which counted Comcast as one of its investors.
Today's deal lends fuel to the persistent rumors that Comcast is thinking about buying Vox, although those talks supposedly fizzled in April, according to Fortune.
The news was announced just before Re/code's big conference, Code, which starts this evening near Los Angeles.
Here's part of the announcement from Walt Mossberg, which was posted Tuesday afternoon on Re/code. He says Re/code will continue to have the same name and leadership under Vox:
We are thrilled to announce that Re/code’s parent company, Revere Digital, is being wholly acquired by the highly respected digital-native media company Vox Media. This is the next big step in our mission to bring you quality tech journalism, because our work will now be amplified and enhanced by Vox Media’s deep and broad skill set.
...Re/code will benefit from joining Vox Media by integrating Vox Media’s various capabilities — including marketing, communications, audience development, sales and production. We will also eventually migrate to Vox Media’s beautiful, powerful and flexible proprietary publishing platform, which will give us new ways to present our stories to you.
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