Graham Holdings, based in Virginia US, is to buy Los Angeles-based Leaf Group in a cash deal worth $323m. Leaf Group was established in 2006, originally as Demand Media, before its IPO in 2011 which valued the company at $1bn.
However, the company’s ad revenues fell sharply, reportedly as a result of Google’s changed algorithm. It now has over 50m monthly users to its sites, generating 2020 revenues of $212m. It operates a range of content brands including eHow (online tutorials), Livestrong.com (healthy living website), Saatchi Art (online gallery) and Society 6 (accessories ecommerce). Graham Holdings, founded by the Washington Post (now owned by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos), owns a broad range of companies across education, health, manufacturing and media.
