Byron Allen's BuzzFeed spending reaches $132 million

Byron Allen's family office has bought another $4.7 million of BuzzFeed stock, its fourth purchase since the media entrepreneur took control of the digital publisher in May.

BuzzFeed said in a regulatory filing that Allen Family Digital, an affiliate of Allen's family office, agreed on Sept. 23 to buy 4.3 million newly issued Class A shares at $1.09 each. That price matched the stock's closing price on Nasdaq on Sept. 22. The shares were issued the same day the agreement was signed.

The deal is a related-party transaction because Allen is BuzzFeed's chairman and chief executive officer. The company said the approval given by its four independent directors for an earlier share sale on Sept. 11 also covered this one.

BuzzFeed shares rose 11.3% after the company disclosed the purchase on Tuesday.

Four purchases in four months

The new shares add to a stake Allen has been building steadily since spring. In May, Allen Family Digital agreed to buy 40 million BuzzFeed shares at $3 each in a $120 million deal that made Allen chairman and CEO and gave his firm majority control. He paid $20 million in cash at closing, and the remaining $100 million came as a five-year promissory note at 5% annual interest. BuzzFeed used $12.5 million of the cash to pay down existing debt.

By mid-June, the stock had fallen to $1.44, and the family office bought another 4 million shares at that price for about $5.8 million. Earlier this month, it bought 1.7 million shares at $1.06 each, worth about $1.8 million, which brought its holding to 45.7 million shares.

The latest purchase lifts that holding to about 50 million shares. Across the four deals, Allen has now committed roughly $132 million to BuzzFeed, though most of that remains the unpaid $100 million note, which is secured by 33.3 million of the shares.

The stock is now trading at about a third of the price Allen paid in May. When the takeover was announced, BuzzFeed's shares had closed at 73 cents, giving the company a market value of about $28 million, and Allen's $3-a-share offer was more than three times that price.

A turnaround in progress

Allen took over a company in financial trouble. Axios reported in May that without a buyer, BuzzFeed would likely have been forced into bankruptcy. Its revenue fell to $31.6 million in the first quarter of 2026, and its net loss widened. The company's revenue peaked at $437 million in 2022.

Allen has said he plans to expand BuzzFeed and HuffPost into free streaming video, audio and user-generated content. BuzzFeed has also cut costs and separated its Tasty food brand and BuzzFeed Studios into a new independent entity. Jonah Peretti, who co-founded BuzzFeed in 2006 and ran it for two decades, is now president of BuzzFeed AI.

The smaller cash injections since the takeover have given BuzzFeed working capital without adding debt. They have also increased Allen's control of the company with each purchase.

Allen, 65, built his fortune through Allen Media Group, his privately held television and media company, which owns the Weather Channel and a string of local TV stations. He has tried in recent years to buy much larger media assets, including Paramount Global, BET and Tegna, but has not completed those deals. BuzzFeed is the first publicly traded company he controls. He bought it through his family office rather than through Allen Media Group.