Verizon and Hearst announced they have entered into an agreement to jointly acquire Complex in a 50/50 ownership structure.
Complex focuses on American popular culture geared at Millennial males. Content includes everything from entertainment news, sneakers and hip hop music to food, fashion, sports and technology. The company reportedly has seen a profit since 2010 with this targeted demographic. In addition to the joint acquisition, Complex will develop premium video content for distribution across Verizon digital platforms, including go90, AOL.com and more.
Rich Antoniello, Complex CEO/co-founder, will continue to lead the company.
“The decision to acquire Complex is certainly a continuation of our media strategy, which is focused on disruption that is occurring in digital media and content distribution, and involves building a portfolio of the emerging digital brands of the future for the millennial and Gen-Z audience,” Brian Angiolet, Verizon’s SVP of consumer product and marketing, says.
The Complex announcement comes on the heels of Verizon and Hearst’s recent investments in AwesomenessTV (each owns 24.5 percent with DreamWorks Animation owning the rest) and their agreement in March to form a 50/50 joint venture to build new multiplatform digital video channels targeting the mobile Millennial audience. The venture, Verizon Hearst Media Partners, is debuting two initial channels: RatedRed.com for Millennials from the heartland and Seriously.TV for viewers who want digital video comedic news updates.
“Complex will turn up the volume on our growing portfolio with Verizon, complementing the audiences targeted with our other channel investments,” Neeraj Khemlani, co-president of Hearst Entertainment and Syndication, says. “Complex’s smart, fresh content aims squarely at the ever elusive young male demo and drives unparalleled engagement with that audience across every social channel. Complex also represents the acceleration of Hearst’s growing partnership with Verizon, which has unparalleled ad, video and mobile technology, and an appetite to build together the digital video networks of the future.”