Here is some big news for the online media world. US-based ContentNext Media, which owns sites like , MocoNews.net and ContentSutra.com, has been bought by Guardian News & Media (GNM), the new media division of UK-headquartered Guardian Media Group (GMG). The financial terms of the deal are not disclosed. However, AllThingsD reported that the deal has been done at $30 million, which also includes an earn-out.
ContentNext, which tracks digital media business globally through its news sites, had received an undisclosed amount of venture funding from Greycroft Partners, the digital media focused venture fund of Alan Patricoff, the founder of private equity fund Apax Partners.
This is the biggest exit for a new media company based on blogging platform after Jason Calacanis sold his Weblogs Inc to AOL for $25 million in 2006.
This writer was part of ContentNext in its early stages as the founding editor of ContentSutra.com, a news website tracking Indian digital media. (Disclosure: VC Circle is currently the content partner for ContentSutra.)
ContentNext was founded in 2002 by Rafat Ali (in the picture), a journalist. He started of in India with Spectrum Publications (publisher of A&M), and moved to the US where he had worked with several financial and tech publications. See the company founder Rafat Ali’s note and also the press release (click here).