Binance Is Taking a $200 Million Stake In Forbes (cnbc.com) 18
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: Binance, the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange, is making a $200 million strategic investment in Forbes, the 104-year-old magazine and digital publisher, CNBC has learned. The funds will help Forbes execute on its plan to merge with a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, in the first quarter, according to people with knowledge of the deal. Binance will replace half of the $400 million in commitments from institutional investors announced by Forbes in August, said the people. That would make Binance one of the top two biggest owners of Forbes, which will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker FRBS, the people said. The crypto company will also get two directors out of nine total board seats, they said. The move shows the increasing real-world influence of the crypto sector, which has seen surging valuations and minted a new class of billionaires amid global interest in digital assets. While crypto companies have gone public, affixed their names to sports arenas and flooded airwaves with celebrity endorsements, this is the sector's first big investment in a traditional U.S. media property.
The investment by Binance, founded barely five years ago, is an indication that Zhao believes content generation will be a growth area for Web 3.0 development. Web 3.0 refers to a more decentralized version of the internet that uses the blockchain, which also underpins cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. [...] The company approached Forbes, which had been weighing options including an outright sale, after identifying three media and content platforms for potential investment, said the people. Crypto insiders say they expect a deluge of deals this year as companies deploy the enormous sums of money raised in recent fundraising rounds. Further reading: An Incomplete History of Forbes as a Platform for Scams, Grift and Bad Journalism
The investment by Binance, founded barely five years ago, is an indication that Zhao believes content generation will be a growth area for Web 3.0 development. Web 3.0 refers to a more decentralized version of the internet that uses the blockchain, which also underpins cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. [...] The company approached Forbes, which had been weighing options including an outright sale, after identifying three media and content platforms for potential investment, said the people. Crypto insiders say they expect a deluge of deals this year as companies deploy the enormous sums of money raised in recent fundraising rounds. Further reading: An Incomplete History of Forbes as a Platform for Scams, Grift and Bad Journalism
That figures (Score:2)
Forbes has been dishing out that kool-aid for a while now.
Re: (Score:3)
Yep. I wonder what sort of articles they're going to publish even more of now.
Gotta keep that hype going for a while more, I guess.
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Heather Morgan ... (Score:3)
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Everyone and their fucking mother runs a column on Forbes. They have 0 editorial standards.
"Web 3.0" (Score:5)
Web 3.0 refers to a more decentralized version of the internet that uses the blockchain, which also underpins cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens, or NFTs.
Not decentralized at all.
More like re-centralized in the hands of companies like Binance and OpenSea.
Re:"Web 3.0" (Score:4, Interesting)
Not decentralized at all. More like re-centralized in the hands of companies like Binance and OpenSea.
Yes, Marlinspike has a good analysis of that here: https://moxie.org/2022/01/07/w... [moxie.org]
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Web 3.0 refers to a more decentralized version of the internet that uses the blockchain, which also underpins cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens, or NFTs.
Not decentralized at all.
More like re-centralized in the hands of companies like Binance and OpenSea.
How is "you get to pick between VISA or Mastercard" less centralized than "you get to pick between VISA, Mastercard or Binance"?
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Forbes is astro turf central (Score:2)
No worse than Slashdot (Score:2)
If you think about it.
BizX.
*cough*
Beyoncé? What? (Score:1)
I read that as Beyoncé.
AOL Time Warner (Score:2)
How many remembers when AOL bought Time Warner?
The crypto crash this time would be just as, if not more so, spectacular as the dot com crash.
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