Fellow online business and tech news-slinger, Quartz, is moving out of Mom’s house over at the Atlantic to see if they can make something of themselves out in this big ol’ world.
Their new home: publicly listed Japanese financial intelligence and media firm, Uzabase.
The deal, according to, well, Quartz, is expected to close within a month and will pay between $75m and $110m, depending on the native-ad-savvy news org’s financial performance the rest of this year.
All about that Uza-expansion
Founded in 2008 by two former UBS investment bankers and a technology consultant, Uzabase is one of Asia’s largest information databases and news services.
As the company looks to seek growth outside of Asia, Quartz will help build NewsPicks USA (Uzabase’s operating app) into an English-language newsfeed, strengthening their presence in the US.
So what does this mean for the Atlantic?
Atlantic Media launched Quartz in 2012 as a newswire for young professionals within the organization, and Quartz has grown into what some call “The Economist of the digital era.”
The deal furthers Atlantic Media chairman and owner David Bradley’s plan to divest his family’s ownership of the organization’s assets, after realizing his sons weren’t interested in taking on the family biz.
Last year, he sold a majority share of the Atlantic to Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective.
This is a financial win for Quartz
Lately, high-profile media acquisitions have been less than favorable (like Mashable, which sold for a fraction of its $250m valuation in 2016).
Quartz, which has 215 employees and reached 12m US readers in May, has managed to do what many large media companies have not — hit their revenue targets.
In 2016, the company turned a profit earning more than $1m on over $30m in revenue, and is currently on pace to increase revenue by as much as 35% this year.
