Buzzfeed Inc (NASDAQ:BZFD) has shut down its News division has been shut down as part of a move that saw its parent company slash 15% of its workforce Thursday.
BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti announced the decision in an email to staff, according to reports.
"While layoffs are occurring across nearly every division, we’ve determined that the company can no longer continue to fund BuzzFeed News as a standalone organization," Peretti wrote.
The CEO added that the company had overinvested in BuzzFeed News "because I love their work and mission so much,” but that he was unable to "hold the company to higher standards for profitability.”
Shares of BuzzFeed tumbled more than 20% to $0.73.
BuzzFeed News got its start in 2012, and in 2021 it won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of China’s mass detention of Uyghur Muslims.
With BuzzFeed News shut down, HuffPost becomes the company’s sole news brand. Peretti said HuffPost, which BuzzFeed acquired in 2020, is profitable and that affected employees will have the opportunity to apply for select roles there.
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