Penske Media Corp., the owner of Sportico, said Thursday it is acquiring Vox Media in a deal that executives said bolsters PMC’s position as the world’s largest digital publisher.
Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
Along with Sportico, Penske’s brands include Billboard, Variety, Rolling Stone, WWD, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Robb Report, Artforum, SHE Media, StyleCaster and ARTnews. The Vox brands being acquired include SB Nation, The Verge, POPSUGAR, The Dodo, Punch, Thrillist and VOX Creative. The deal also includes Concert, Vox’s ad marketplace, and Forte, Vox’s first-party data platform.
“Collectively, the newly combined portfolio delivers significant scale, reaching hundreds of millions of people every month, producing more than 300 live events each year and offering best-in-class ad technology,” PMC said in a press release.
SB Nation, founded in 2003, is a collection of hundreds of fan sites, some team-specific and others based on individual sports like MMA. Its content is created by a mix of on-staff reporters and outside contributors who work as contractors.
