Vivek Ramaswamy Demands BuzzFeed Hire Tucker Carlson, Aaron Rodgers and Others
The newly minted activist investor has ideas. None will happen.
Buzzfeed, the once popular online outlet, has been struggling since it went public a number of years, but failed presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has ideas on how to fix it.
Ramaswamy recently disclosed an 8.3% stake in the media company, enough of a minority stake to make headaches for the board, and it appears he intends to do just that.
In a letter to BuzzFeed’s board, Ramaswamy suggested laying off large swaths of the company’s existing staff. He encouraged BuzzFeed’s board to transform the outlet from a progressive icon into a creator-driven platform, suggesting it hire personalities like Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, Bill Maher and Aaron Rodgers. He requested that the board add three unnamed directors to its ranks to increase “diversity of thought.” And, finally, Ramaswamy implored BuzzFeed to issue a public apology to the country for having “lied” about Donald Trump, Covid-19 and various other issues.
Obviously, Buzzfeed is going to do none of that, and Jonah Petretti, the founder and CEO of BuzzFeed, is thought to have a special class of shares with effective veto power over any investor action. As it currently stands, Peretti has 64% voting power compared to Ramaswamy’s paltry 2.6%.
In a written response to Ramaswamy, Peretti said the ever-shifting troll held “fundamental misunderstandings” about BuzzFeed’s business operations, adding that Buzzfeed was “definitely not going to issue an apology for our Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism.”
So why did Vivek significantly invest in a company that he hates, and they hate everything he stands for?
Some possibilities:
Ideally, they do everything he says and he successfully hijacks a once-popular/once-credible liberal media outlet to remake it in his own image.
To troll the publication that Trump loyalists hate for publishing the Steele Dossier in 2017, that launched the Russian collusion probe.
To generate attention and remain relevant.
To exact concessions or some changes to Buzzfeed from the board, just to shut him up.
Either way, he’s still just an incredibly wealthy attention seeking troll.