I am writing to announce some difficult news. The rest of the media industry hasn't been immune to cuts in the past year as advertisers have slashed spending amid a softening economy. In a separate high-profile departure, Buzzfeed's CTO Peter Wang left in February after three years. A handful of top execs from BuzzFeed's Complex Networks left as part of that round, including Complex's president, Justin Killion. The company has trimmed staff in two rounds of layoffs since going public, most recently cutting 12% of its team in December, or 180 staffers. Today's news caused it to tumble again, nearly 24%, to 72 cents a share by midday its market cap to fall below $100 million, roughly a third of what BuzzFeed paid for Complex less than two years ago. To get BuzzFeed's SPAC deal done, Peretti agreed to give BuzzFeed's biggest shareholder, NBCUniversal, up to 1.2 million of his 6.4 million shares in December if the price falls below $12.50 on a certain date, according to a filing.Ä«uzzFeed's stock price has plunged since its public debut of around $10 to under $1 per share. Investors withdrew most of the money raised by the SPAC, leaving BuzzFeed with little funding to expand, and the ad market took a turn for the worse. Peretti controls the company - though the clock is ticking for him to get the share price up. The onetime digital media darling has struggled to live up to expectations since raising millions in venture capital and then going public in December 2021 via a special-purpose acquisition company. Elsewhere there was criticism of the wisdom of taking digital media, which has struggled overall to find a profitable model, to the public markets. "It breaks my heart - the mismanagement of this whole thing has been brutal," said one. The news was met with anger and sadness from company insiders. "Our job is to adapt, change, improve, and perform despite the challenges in the world. "I could have managed these changes better as the CEO of this company and our leadership team could have performed better despite these circumstances," he wrote. He also conceded he overinvested in BuzzFeed News and didn't hold the company to high enough profitability standards. He blamed difficulty in integrating BuzzFeed and Complex, which BuzzFeed acquired in 2021. In his memo to staff, Peretti admitted making mistakes that led to the cutbacks. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
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