Former Republican presidential candidate and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has bought a minority stake in Buzzfeed, the digital publishing firm that shut down its media outlet final 12 months.
Shares of Buzzfeed Inc., based mostly in New York Metropolis, skyrocketed about 20% to $2.99 on Wednesday.
Ramaswamy acquired a 7.7% stake in Buzzfeed, in line with a submitting with the Securities and Change Fee late Tuesday.
Ramaswamy mentioned within the submitting that he believes Buzzfeed’s inventory is undervalued.
He’s seeking to converse with the corporate’s board and administration.
Buzzfeed has struggled to prop up gross sales because it went public in 2021.
In late 2022, job cuts began rolling out, with the corporate citing a poor digital promoting atmosphere, then early final 12 months, it introduced it was shutting down its Pulitzer Prize-winning digital media outlet BuzzFeed News.
The company mother or father’s co-founder and CEO Jonah Peretti mentioned in a memo to workers on the time that along with the information division, layoffs would happen in its enterprise, content material, tech and administrative groups.
Earlier this month, Buzzfeed reported a first-quarter lack of $35.7 million, or 72 cents per share, on income of $44.8 million.
Promoting income fell 22%, whereas content material income declined 19% and the corporate is projecting a worsening income state of affairs.
Ramaswamy suspended his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination in January and endorsed former President Donald Trump after ending a distant fourth in Iowa’s leadoff caucuses.
The son of Indian immigrants, Ramaswamy entered politics on the highest degree after making a whole lot of tens of millions of {dollars} on the intersection of hedge funds and pharmaceutical analysis, a profession he charted and constructed whereas graduating from Harvard College after which Yale Regulation Faculty.
