Vice devalued after Disney's $157m write-down
Disney will take a $157m write-down of Vice Media, the company shared yesterday (9 November) during its quarterly earnings report.
Vice continues slide after Disney write-down
This follows the recent news of Vice Media's plan to cut its staff by as much as 15% through a combination of natural wastage and a hiring freeze, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Disney originally invested $400m in the edgy news outlet in 2015 at a reported valuation of between $4 to $4.5bn.
Vice most recently boasted a $5.7bn valuation as recent as 2017, but it's been downhill since. Vice's current valuation is unclear, but Disney's write-down likely means $2bn drop in value for the Brooklyn-based company.
Vice chief executive Nancy Dubuc has only been at the job for five months. According to WSJ, Vice is on track to lose over $50m this year, and earn between $600m to $650m.
Dubuc is also reportedly planning to consolidate Vice's dozen-or-so verticals by half.
Vice will apparently focus more if its resources on its in-house agency Virtue. Last September, Virtue won Google Chrome’s 10-year anniversary campaign.