BuzzFeed is selling Hot Ones

An $82.5 million deal for First We Feast, the company behind Hot Ones, helped BuzzFeed pay off some of its looming debt.

by Charles Pulliam-Moore

Dec 12, 2024, 4:02 PM UTC

A bald man in a black shirt sitting at a table in front of a plate of buffalo wings and an assortment of hot sauces.

First We Feast.

Charles Pulliam-Moore is a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years.

After months of searching for a buyer to take First We Feast — the production company behind Hot Ones — off its hands, BuzzFeed has finally secured an $82.5 million all-cash deal to sell First We Feast to “a consortium led by an affiliate of Soros Fund Management LLC” The consortium’s list of investors includes First We Feast founder Chris Schonberger and Hot Ones host Sean Evans.

In a press release, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti said that selling off First We Feast “marks an important step in BuzzFeed, Inc.’s strategic transformation into a media company positioned to fully benefit from the ongoing AI revolution.”

“In the coming years, we will continue to invest in our most scalable and tech enabled services, launching new AI-powered interactive experiences, and delivering for our loyal audience and business partners,” Peretti said.

BuzzFeed acquired First We Feast in 2021 when it bought rival media outfit Complex, the production company’s original owner. Though BuzzFeed wound up selling Complex off to Ntwrk earlier this year for $108.6 million, it elected to retain control of First We Feast.

The deal comes after months of speculation about how BuzzFeed might go about paying down $123.5 million in debt and interest payments. Failed Republican presidential candidate and soon-to-be DOGE co-head Vivek Ramaswamy (who recently purchased a 9 percent stake in BuzzFeed) previously insisted that BuzzFeed wouldn’t be able to get on top of its debt problem and that he could somehow end up running the company.

However, with cash on hand plus $75.6 million from this sale, Buzzfeed says it can pay down the debt, and end up with more cash on its books than debt.

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