"The Onion, Deadspin and other online media icons to enter PE ownership"

From PitchBook, April 8:

Great Hill Partners has acquired Gizmodo Media Group and The Onion from Univision Communications, with The Wall Street Journal reporting a price that's "much less" than the $135 million figure Univision paid for Gizmodo three years ago; Recode's Peter Kafka, meanwhile, tweeted that Great Hill will pay less than $50 million.

The deal brings some of the most iconic media brands on the internet under the control of Great Hill, a Boston-based growth firm that generally targets companies worth $500 million or less. Gizmodo Media is a descendant of the original Gawker Media, and it now controls most of the old Gawker network, including its flagship Gizmodo tech site, the Deadspin sports blog, Jezebel's coverage of women's issues, and other brands like Jalopnik, Lifehacker and The Root. Then there's The Onion, a pioneering source of satire that also owns the ClickHole humor site and The AV Club, a longtime purveyor of pop culture coverage.

Univision purchased the former Gawker assets in 2016, shortly after Gawker shut down in the wake of a $140 million verdict against the media company in a high-profile lawsuit brought by former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan and funded by Silicon Valley icon Peter Thiel. Hogan settled the suit months later for $31 million. Last July, meanwhile, Bustle Digital Group acquired the Gawker name and the media gossip site's remaining non-Gizmodo assets out of bankruptcy for a reported $1.35 million, with plans to relaunch the brand....MORE