Byron Allen, the media entrepreneur behind Allen Media Group and The Weather Channel, is acquiring a 52% controlling stake in BuzzFeed for $120 million and will take over as chairman and chief executive — a deal that hands new ownership to a company that has spent years shedding assets, cutting staff, and publicly doubting its own survival.
Under the terms of the agreement, Allen’s family office, Allen Family Digital, will acquire 40 million shares of BuzzFeed at $3.00 per share. The purchase will be financed with $20 million in cash at closing and a $100 million promissory note due five years from the close date, accruing interest at 5% annually. The deal is expected to close by the end of May 2026.
BuzzFeed co-founder Jonah Peretti, who has led the company since its founding in 2006, will step down as CEO and move into a newly created role as president of BuzzFeed AI. Peretti offered an unusually personal endorsement of his successor in the announcement, noting he was also pleased that Allen — whose “Comics Unleashed” talk show begins airing in CBS’s post-Colbert 11:35 p.m. slot on May 22 — would bring star power to the BuzzFeed platform.
Allen arrived at the deal with an explicit strategic target. “As of this moment, with the power of AI, BuzzFeed is officially chasing YouTube to become another premiere free video streaming service,” he said, outlining plans to expand into free streaming video, audio, and user-generated content. BuzzFeed Studios will anchor the content expansion, housing vertical micro-dramas, animation, digital video, and premium productions including feature films.
The acquisition arrives against a stark financial backdrop. In 2025, BuzzFeed posted a net loss of $57.3 million and said it lacked sufficient resources to meet its cash obligations for the coming year. First quarter 2026 revenue came in at $31.6 million, down 12.4% year-over-year, with total time spent on its content falling 10.7% compared to the same period in 2025. The company publicly expressed “substantial doubt” about its ability to remain a going concern as recently as March.
BuzzFeed’s decline as a public company has accelerated since its SPAC IPO in 2021. The company shut down its Pulitzer Prize-winning BuzzFeed News division in 2023 with a 15% workforce reduction, then sold Complex Networks in 2024.
Allen, who founded Allen Media Group in 1993, owns 13 broadcast TV stations and 10 television networks reaching nearly 275 million subscribers, including The Weather Channel, Comedy.TV and HBCU GO.
