Buzzfeed, one of the country’s leading online news and entertainment websites, took a beating on the NASDAQ Monday, with its share prices falling 41% in a selloff motivated by shareholder lockup agreements.
The plunge dropped the company’s net worth to about $300 million, according to The Insider, which is just about $15 million less than AOL received when The Huffington Post bought it a decade ago; Buzzfeed ultimately bought The Huffington Post last year.
The digital media giant is now worth less than 20% of the $1.5 billion value it had when it made its IPO debut.
The major selloff was Buzzfeed’s worst one-day percentage decline since it began trading, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Analysts believe the plunge was the result of selloffs from investors who bought Buzzfeed stock last December through lockup agreements that expired in early June.
Monday’s selloff lowered Buzzfeed’s price to just $2.23 a share, down 85% from its all-time high of $14.77 a share set back on Dec. 6, 2021. In futures Tuesday morning, Buzzfeed’s value was up to $2.36 a share, a 5.8% increase from its closing rate Monday.
Last month, Buzzfeed reported a 26% increase in revenue during the first quarter this year, though it also suffered a $44 million net loss during the period.
Based on East 18th Street in Gramercy, the company reported having 1,700 workers as of 2017.
