BuzzFeed funding more than doubles with $50m investment

BuzzFeed, the news and entertainment website that has surged to success on the back of social media sharing, is getting a $50 million shot in the arm from an Andreessen Horowitz investment that reportedly values the company at $850 million.

The injection more than doubles the funding BuzzFeed has raised to date and will be used to beef up its video unit, offer new content sections and invest more in international editions. The company will also create an in-house incubator for new technology and acquisitions and centralise its advertorial efforts. Soaring valuations for digital companies like BuzzFeed and Vice Media stand in contrast with the gloom around a print sector that has largely been left behind in the recent flurry of media dealmaking. Newspaper and magazine groups from News Corp, Time Inc and Tribune to, most recently, Gannett have been spun off from once diversified parent companies that prefer to focus on higher-margin television, film and digital properties.

"Over the last decade, traditional media has been upended by technology," said Jonah Peretti, the BuzzFeed founder and chief executive. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2014)