Nine months after putting them up for sale, Univision has unloaded Gizmodo Media Group (GMG) and The Onion digital sites.
Univision Communications announced today that private equity firm Great Hill Partners became the owner of these assets immediately upon the completion and signing of the deal.
GMG and The Onion will form a new company called G/O Media Inc., which will operate as independent assets within the Great Hill Partners portfolio.
The GMG digital portfolio includes Gizmodo, Jezebel, Deadspin, Lifehacker, Splinter, The Root, Kotaku, Earther, and Jalopnik. The Onion portfolio includes The Onion, Clickhole, The A.V. Club, and The Takeout.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The Wall Street Journal reported in February that Univision was in talks with Great Hill Partners for the sale of GMG, but it would not confirm the report at the time.
Under the previous leadership of CEO Randy Falco, Univision had invested heavily in digital assets, acquiring ex-Gawker sites for $135 million in 2016 and $27.1 million for a 40.5% controlling stake in satirical website The Onion in 2015. The company bought the remaining stake in The Onion in September 2018 for $28.7 million, apparently to be able to sell the site as a whole entity.
But those digital assets were dragging the company down. Earlier this year, Univision reported its its English-language digital businesses generated losses of $96.1 million the third quarter of 2018 and $32.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Univision says the sale of GMG and The Onion is part of its strategy to focus on its core Hispanic media business.
