CH Media’s creative officer, Sam Reich, is to buy out the US-based business from its parent, Barry Diller’s InterActive Corp (IAC). CH operates the digitals CollegeHumor, Dorkly, Drawfee and DROPOUT.
CollegeHumor was founded in 1999. Reich joined in 2006 when it was acquired by IAC. The site now has 15m monthly uniques but has struggled to attract ad revenue. It has been loss-making.
The “new” company, which is expected to make up to 100 redundancies, will have a small staff of up to 10 people. It is assumed to have paid only a nominal sum for the business.
Ricky Van Veen, who co-founded CollegeHumor as a student, is now head of global creative strategy at Facebook and was involved in the launch of its Watch video platform. He and his co-founder sold CollegeHumor to IAC for $25m in 2006.
IAC operates more than 100 digital brands including Match, Vimeo, the Daily Beast, Tinder, PlentyOfFish, Hinge, HomeAdvisor, and Angie’s List. The IAC founder and chair is TV veteran Barry Diller.
