Vice Media has agreed to sell a 10 percent stake to A&E Networks. The $250 million investment values the company at $2.5 billion.
The news was first reported in the Financial Times (warning: paywall), and a Vice spokerson confirmed both the deal and the valuation.
I’ve also emailed an A&E spokesperson for comment and will update if I hear back.
The news comes shortly after Time Warner reportedly ended its negotiation to buy a stake of its own. Last year, Fox invested in Vice at a $1.4 billion valuation.
The media company started out as a print magazine, but it has recently found success online, particularly with video. CEO Shane Smith (pictured above) appeared at our Disrupt New York conference in May, where he said that if Vice reaches his goals, “We won’t be the next CNN or ESPN or MTV, we’ll be 10 times that size.”