Buzzfeed Chief Executive Officer Jonah Peretti met with pharmaceutical entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who has recently acquired an influential stake in the media company.
Ramaswamy, who has been quietly acquiring millions of shares since January, now holds an 8.9% stake in Buzzfeed.
According to a new report from Axios, Ramaswamy met with Peretti virtually for an hour on June 20 at the Buzzfeed CEO’s request. An unnamed Buzzfeed director attended the meeting as did Chris Balfe of Red Seat Ventures and Patrick Bet-David, the owner of PHP Agency and host of the PBD Podcast. Ramaswamy wants to add Balfe and Bet-David to the virtual publisher’s board of directors.
Ramaswamy also wants Clay Travis, the founder of OutKick, to be given a place on the board. Travis was briefed following the meeting. The request would expand the company’s board from five to eight directors and equate to a 37.5% stake in Buzzfeed.
The meeting reportedly lasted an hour. Ramaswamy and Peretti agreed to meet in person in the coming months.
“BuzzFeed stock climbed above $3 per share upon Ramaswamy's initial disclosure of a 7.7% ownership position, but it's since sunk closer to $2 per share — imparting the former unicorn with a market cap below $80 million,” noted Axios.
In late May, Ramaswamy sent a letter to the Buzzfeed board warning that he plans to continue acquiring shares and that the business “has lost its way.”
“The company was a pioneer of the social internet, when referral traffic from Facebook seemed like it would never end,” he said. “Legacy media companies and publishers believed that BuzzFeed had the secret sauce, so much so that they invested at sky-high valuations, copied the strategy, or both.”
“I own your stock because I believe BuzzFeed can still become a more valuable company than at its initial listing, but this requires a major shift in strategy,” the he wrote.
Ramaswamy has suggested the company get back to “startup size” – arguing there is no reason why a media company should have operating expenses that are “147% of revenue, in an era where AI could allow you to” reduce costs and increase “the quality of your output.”
He also called on Buzzfeed to hire talent from “across the cultural and political and cultural spectrum” and to not be afraid of challenging its audience. He named Candace Owens, Destiny, Tucker Carlson, Bill Maher, Aaron Rodgers, and Charles Barkley as examples.
Bet-David praised Ramaswamy for his steady acquisition of influence over Buzzfeed, calling the former Republican presidential candidate a “leader.”
“He’s now the 2nd largest Class A shareholder with 8.37%,” Bet-David wrote in an X post summarizing Ramaswamy’s letter.
