BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti said in an interview at the Code Conference on Wednesday that the site is planning on an initial public offering in the future, The Guardian reports.
"We’re very focused on building out internationally, we’re very focused on building out across multiple different platforms, we’re very focused on building out our video business," Peretti said at the conference.
"That will give us a diversification … to allow us to build a big independent company with much more predictability and things that would allow us to be a public company."
Here is a video from Re/code of Peretti discussing his company:
This isn't the first time that BuzzFeed has hinted that an IPO is on its way. BuzzFeed President Greg Coleman told AdAge in 2014 that the company was open to the idea of an IPO, but went on to explain that the board was focused on building a large media company.
Buzzfeed has 900 employees and is building out a big San Francisco bureau to increase its tech business news coverage. Those are significant costs. An IPO would give observers — which is to say all the companies who run similar, large digital news businesses, such as Huffington Post, Business Insider, The Daily Mail and The Guardian — a look at Buzzfeed's financials. An S-1 disclosure with the SEC would answer questions such as how much revenue Buzzfeed makes, and whether it is profitable or not.
