Perpetually struggling SpinMedia, the collection of music and pop culture websites once known as Buzz Media, is officially on the block, sources tell Media Ink.
The company, which snapped up both Vibe and Spin and promptly converted the music magazines to all-digital sites, has retained the investment bank Petsky Prunier to shop for a buyer.
The websites, which also include The Friskly, Idolator, Go Fug Yourself, Celebuzz, Buzznet, Death & Taxes and others, is estimated to be losing at least $5 million a year on revenues of around $18 million, sources said.
Univision, which snapped up Gawker last week for $130 million, was said to have taken a look some months ago — but one source said its interest stopped there.
M/C Partners became the lead investor in a 2014 reorganization, after an assignment for the benefit of creditors in California wiped out the equity of many of the early investors.
M/C is said to have pumped more than $10 million into Spin over the past two years. Spin also blew through $125 million in equity money over a decade before M/C arrived on the scene.
“They bought too many companies and did not have enough to support the brands, which just got thinner and thinner,” said one industry executive.
Its number of unique visitors, once estimated to be more than 50 million, was down to 25 million in July, according to comScore.