Complex Acquired by NTWRK With Investment From Universal Music Group

Livestream purchasing platform NTWRK is buying streetwear, music and sports-centric media firm Complicated Networks. The deal will create a brand new entity that the 2 corporations declare might be “a brand new vacation spot for ‘superfan’ tradition” and convey an e-commerce market into the previous media model’s ecosystem.

The information was introduced Wednesday (Feb. 21), with funding from Most important Avenue Advisors, Common Music Group, Goldman Sachs and Interscope Information founder Jimmy Iovine. UMG may even come on board as a strategic associate and present Interscope chairman/CEO John Janick will be a part of the corporate’s board.

NTWRK is buying Complicated from Buzzfeed, which bought the streetwear-focused media firm in 2021 for $300 million. Phrases of the deal weren’t disclosed, although The New York Instances reported final October {that a} deal value $140 million was shut; subsequent reporting in December put the value at barely greater than $100 million. NTWRK co-founder/CEO Aaron Levant — who initially created NTWRK alongside Jamie Iovine and Gaston Dominguez-Letelier, and co-founded ComplexCon with Complicated founder Marc Ecko in 2016 — will change into CEO of the brand new firm.

“Complicated has been a beacon of tradition and innovation for over twenty years,” Levant stated in a press release. “My journey with Complicated started as an admirer of their authentic journal in 2002 and it has now come full circle as I step into the management position. Alongside this spectacular group, we’ll create the definitive international content material, commerce and experiential platform of convergence tradition.”

NTWRK has beforehand labored with a number of UMG artists, together with Billie Eilish, Submit Malone and BLACKPINK, the latter of whom labored with Takashi Murakami for Interscope’s thirtieth anniversary vinyl assortment. UMG’s involvement, nonetheless, shouldn’t be an unique one, and the brand new platform will stay open to artists of any label, main or unbiased.

“This partnership will give our artists entry to a dynamic community to deepen connections with superfans via distinctive collaborations and cultural moments,” stated Janick in a press release. “We share a collective imaginative and prescient on how D2C, experiential, model partnerships and content material are mutually reinforcing cornerstones of the fan expertise. We are going to proceed to signal and elevate new generations of nice expertise and we consider that we will greatest serve these artists via a holistic set of capabilities.”

The deal with the superfan is one that could be a precedence for UMG this yr, with UMG chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge writing in his New 12 months’s memo to workers that “the subsequent focus of our technique might be to develop the pie for all artists, by strengthening the artist-fan relationship via superfan experiences and merchandise,” which he referred to as a part of “the blueprint for the labels of the longer term.”

The brand new firm additionally comes amid quite a lot of adjustments in each the music and media areas. UMG introduced an enormous label restructuring earlier this yr, with Janick taking over oversight of Capitol Music Group and different labels, because the music main approaches looming layoffs. On the similar time, Buzzfeed is believed to be promoting Complicated for a lot lower than half of what it acquired it for simply three years in the past, amid a wider run of layoffs and closings of media shops throughout the business. Warner Music Group, which final yr laid off 600 folks, additionally introduced that it will be promoting a few of its owned media properties, corresponding to HipHopDX and Uproxx.

“Aaron Levant, together with Jamie Iovine and Gaston Dominguez-Letelier, are constructing an unbelievable platform and this acquisition will exponentially speed up its progress,” Jimmy Iovine stated in a press release. “Combining the ability and attain of Complicated with the NTWRK engine serving creators throughout music, style and artwork might be transformative for the subsequent technology of client know-how.”