Atlantic Media has agreed to sell its business-and-tech news outlet Quartz to publicly traded Japanese firm Uzabase, in a deal worth between $75 million and $110 million. The deal is set to close within the next 30 days. In an open letter to employees and readers, Quartz leadership said its work will remain largely unchanged, with current leadership and office locations remaining intact. Quartz co-president and editor-in-chief Kevin J. Delaney and co-president and publisher Jay Lauf–who will now become co-CEOs of Quartz–also said the company is on track to boost ad revenue by up to 35% over last year.
Delaney and Lauf wrote:
“Uzabase’s ambition echoes our own—to build the leading business news brand of this century—and now we are united in this mission along with you, our readers. We expect the partnership will allow us to provide you with even more high-quality, independent, globally minded journalism about the new global economy.”
Quartz was founded in 2012 by Atlantic Media as a digital-first media brand, and reports 20 million monthly readers. Its new parent company is a business intelligence and media firm that went public in 2016. Its two main products are the consumer subscription NewsPicks news app and a financial data and business intelligence service called Speeda. Quartz will be assuming responsibility for the English-language version of NewsPicks.
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