Media entrepreneur Byron Allen agreed to purchase a controlling stake in BuzzFeed for $120 million and will take over as chief executive once the deal closes, which is expected by the end of May 2026. Allen will acquire 40 million shares at $3 per share, giving his Allen Family Digital approximately 52% of BuzzFeed's outstanding shares upon closing.

The purchase price will be funded with $20 million in cash at closing and a $100 million promissory note due five years after closing with 5% annual interest. BuzzFeed plans to create BuzzFeed Studios and spin off Tasty as an independent entity under the sale.

Jonah Peretti will remain at the company as president of BuzzFeed AI. "Byron's vision, operational experience and long-term commitment to premium content makes him exceptionally well-positioned to lead BuzzFeed and HuffPost into our next phase of growth," Peretti said. He also said he would speak directly with employees on Tuesday about coming cost reductions.

Peretti said the company would undergo cost cuts ahead of Allen's arrival, which often mean employee layoffs. Allen described his plans in remarks tied to the announcement, saying his focus will be "expanding into free-streaming video, audio and user-generated content." He added that BuzzFeed will use AI to compete with YouTube "to become another premiere free video streaming service."

Allen is the founder, chairman and CEO of Los Angeles-based Allen Media Group, which he founded in 1993. The conglomerate owns networks including The Weather Channel, 13 broadcast television stations in 11 U.S. markets and 10 HD television networks serving nearly 275 million subscribers. Allen has leased a two-hour nightly comedy block on CBS through the 2026-27 television season. His show "Comics Unleashed" will air in the time slot vacated after Late Night with Stephen Colbert ends on May 21, 2026. He will also continue to lease the 12:37 a.m. hour on CBS for the comedy game show "Funny You Should Ask."

BuzzFeed, which owns the news outlet HuffPost, went public in late 2021 and pivoted away from the journalism business in 2023. The company was once valued at $1.7 billion during a private equity-funded wave of interest in high-traffic websites in the 2010s. Since going public, its shares have fallen by more than 98%, and as of Monday evening the stock traded at $0.71 per share, giving BuzzFeed a market capitalization of roughly $31 million.

In the first quarter of 2026, BuzzFeed's revenue declined 12.4% to $31.6 million, and its net loss widened to $15.1 million from $12.5 million a year earlier. Vice Media and Vox Media have seen financial challenges since the period when Facebook algorithms were influential.