TURIN. GEDI Gruppo Editoriale has reached a preliminary agreement with The Huffington Post LLC to acquire the entire capital of the company Huffington Post Italia.
Created in 2012 in a joint venture with the global publishing group of the same name, Huffington Post Italia has grown to become one of the best known and most appreciated national online information brands, which produces and distributes articles, comments, original analyzes on national facts and international, with particular attention to politics, economics and social issues. In addition to the huffingtonpost.it domain, the brand has a family of social accounts followed by a total of over 2 million followers.
Under the agreements, GEDI will acquire 51% of the share capital of the joint venture to date held by The Huffington Post LLC (BuzzFeed group), thus bringing its stake in the company to 100%. GEDI will ensure editorial continuity through the exclusive license for Italy of the TheHuffingtonPost brand and will carry out advertising sales through the concessionaire A. Manzoni & C. The CEO of GEDI, Maurizio Scanavino, declared: «with this operation we complete a path started 9 years ago, which made it possible to build a name of absolute importance in the Italian information landscape. Under the safe guidance of Mattia Feltri and with the adoption of the technological platform that GEDI is developing for all its publications, Huffington Post will now be able to express its full potential to offer an innovative, original and captivating product ».
Mattia Feltri
Mattia Feltri, director of Huffington Post Italia, commented: “For HuffPost this is extraordinary news: joining Gedi Gruppo Editoriale allows us to imagine and plan a future in which, in our peculiarity and autonomy, we will finally be able to move in full harmony and synergy with the other publications, and following their industrial plans, essential for innovating and thinking about information in step with the times and with the market ».
The completion of the transaction, which is subject to the usual authorizations required by current regulations, is expected by the end of the third quarter of the year.