There are few, if any, companies comparable to Buzzfeed that trade publicly. It's unclear if there will be robust PIPE interest in digital media companies, which have only recently become profitable and whose projected growth rates can't match industries likeVice slowed down its process to go public after PIPE candidates balked at its finances, one of the people said.
Bustle, which owns sites geared to women such as Elite Daily, Nylon and Romper, has spoken with several SPACs but has no plans to go public alone at the moment, said a person familiar with the matter.Several digital media companies want Buzzfeed to go public first so they can see how investors value it before they make a decision to go public themselves or look to sell, two of the people said.
As a result, some companies will become increasingly desperate to sell to either Buzzfeed or Group Nine's SPAC, if they are the only buyers with publicly traded currency, said two of the people familiar with the matter. Digital media companies could also merge with other peers, such as the news curation service theSkimm, but private mergers are often tricky to complete because there's no public market to accurately dictate equity valuation.