Puck, the five-year-old media upstart, has a new owner: RedBird Capital Partners, the investment firm that is a backer of other media companies including Paramount Skydance’s merger bid for Warner Bros. RedBird is led by managing partner Gerry Cardinale (pictured above), who sits on the board of Paramount as a director. RedBird and Puck signed an agreement for the investment, and the deal is expected to close in about a month, pending regulatory approval.
RedBid’s official deal to take over Puck was announced Thursday by Puck CEO Sarah Personette and Jon Kelly, co-founder and editor in chief, in a memo to staff that was obtained by Variety. For Puck, the ownership by RedBird presents obvious some conflicts; for one thing, the media newsletter publisher has been routinely covering Paramount (and CBS News) as well as its pursuit of Warner Bros. Personette and Kelly maintained that the deal “does not change our editorial independence, our differentiated business model, or the things that make Puck, Puck.” With RedBird’s acquisition of a majority stake, Standard Investments and TPG are exiting their positions in Puck.
RIT Capital will remain a minority investor alongside RedBird. Read the full memo from Personette and Kelly: We are thrilled to share that RedBird will become Puck’s lead investor at an approximately $250 million valuation. We look forward to discussing this news in more detail at our All Hands tomorrow at 4pm EST (zoom to follow) but we wanted to share a little information here to start.
Most importantly, we want to acknowledge all of you. Over the last almost five years, this team has built something incredibly special. You have broken news, consistently gotten the inside story before anyone else, helped build an entirely new model for a media company, and most recently brought Puck and Airmail together as one company.
This transaction simply would not be possible without the extraordinary work, commitment, and creativity of this entire team! We are also incredibly grateful to the investors who believed in Puck and helped us get here. They believed in our model and have been terrific partners along the way.
Standard Investments and TPG, who have been supporting us since our inception, will be exiting after our more than five-year partnership, and RIT Capital will remain a minority investor alongside RedBird. We are excited to have RedBird as our partner for this next stage. Since joining our cap table following the Air Mail acquisition last fall, and throughout this entire process, they have demonstrated a real appreciation for what we have built, the people who built it and what makes Puck different.
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