Richard White-backed Vinyl buys rival BuzzFeed and PopSugar writer Val Morgan Digital from Hoyts

ASX-listed music and media firm Vinyl Group has gone buying once more, shopping for Val Morgan Digital for $10.5 million from guardian firm Hoyts.

The deal contains $7 million money and $3.5 million in Vinyl (ASX:VNL) shares, topic to a 24-month escrow.

The acquisition of a key rival will bolster Vinyl’s income by greater than 70%, with Val Morgan Digital producing $10.7 million in income within the 2025 calendar yr. The enterprise can also be anticipated to contribute $2.5m in annualised EBITDA to Vinyl Group on a professional forma foundation.

Val Morgan Digital publishes a spread of on-line media manufacturers beneath licence, together with Fandom, PopSugar, BuzzFeed, Tasty, Vox Media and LADbible.

WiseTech International’s billionaire founder Richard White owns greater than a 3rd of Vinyl via his funding fund RealWise Holdings. Funding for the acquisition, anticipated to undergo inside a month, will come via a facility of as much as $10 million supplied by current shareholders, leaving the ASX-listed enterprise with round $3m in working capital.

Vinyl owns blockchain music startup Serenade, music credit database Jaxsta, the Tinder-style musician social community Vampr, commerce publication Mediaweek, and The Brag Media, which publishes Rolling Stone, and Selection, in addition to Concrete Playground, which it acquired in late 2024 for $5 million.

Vinyl Media claimed it is going to have a “comparable digital viewers” to main media manufacturers 9 and Information Corp Australia following the acquisition, reaching round 47% of Australians on-line within the leisure class and 51% in information.

Veteran Hoyts Group CEO Damian Keogh, to affix the Vinyl board alongside a long-term business partnership for cinema and out-of-home promoting stock for cross-selling.

“We now have a big portfolio of premium cultural belongings along with vital nationwide attain, offering a singular and compelling worth proposition for advertisers,” Keogh stated.

Final week Vinyl launched its half-yearly outcomes to December 31, with income rising 49% on 12 months in the past to $11.4 million. Whereas working bills fell 13% to $8.1m, the enterprise nonetheless posted a internet loss after tax of $3m, greater than halving the $6.9m NPAT loss in 1H FY25.