Complex matters
Ailing digital outlet BuzzFeed announced yesterday that it is selling streetwear, music, and sports-centric media brand Complex in a $108m all-cash deal — booking a ~$200m loss on its acquisition 3 years ago.
As part of the deal, Buzzfeed will retain one of Complex’s crown jewels: First We Feast, an online food culture brand with over 13 million YouTube subscribers, famous for producing the popular Hot Ones series, which has built a strong following for its hot sauces and spicy content.
Hot commodity
“It’s the show with hot questions and even hotter wings,” host Sean Evans declares at the start of each star-studded episode of Hot Ones, as celebrities sweat their way through 10 deeply-researched questions while eating 10 increasingly spicy wings.
Distributed primarily on YouTube, the format has become an international phenomenon: viral moments featuring VIPs like Gordon Ramsay, Paul Rudd, and Jennifer Lawrence have been snipped, cut, and memed across social media, helping to take the First We Feast channel to more than 3.5 billion total views.
Of course, a large audience isn’t always enough to create a thriving digital business (see BuzzFeed), which is why Hot Ones is so unique. Thanks to the marketability of its premise, Hot Ones shifts thousands of bottles of their eponymous tongue-tingling hot sauces every year, with a box of 10 retailing for $120.
Zooming out: Buzzfeed is also set to lay off 16% of its workforce as it looks to cut costs in a bid to survive on the public markets, with shares down 97% since it 2021 IPO, and the WSJ reporting last month that they are even considering flogging longtime mealticket Tasty.
