BuzzFeed is slashing its workforce on the heels of the digital media company’s deal to sell a controlling ownership stake to entrepreneur and comedian Byron Allen.
The company disclosed that it is laying off about 35% of its current employees and contractors. “The reduction in workforce plan is intended to advance the Company’s path towards profitability and positive cash flow generation by streamlining its organizational structure, optimizing operating expenses, and preserving cash,” BuzzFeed said in an SEC filing Monday.
The move will eliminate about 180 jobs across BuzzFeed, including in its HuffPost and Tasty divisions. As of Dec. 31, 2025, BuzzFeed had 507 employees located across five countries, per its annual report filed with the SEC.
BuzzFeed estimates it will incur between $6.5 million to $8.5 million in charges related to the job cuts, expected to recognized primarily in the third quarter of 2026. With the layoffs, the company said, it expects to realize annualized savings of $29 million-$32 million.
Under the terms of BuzzFeed’s agreement with Allen, his company acquired a 51% stake in the company for a total purchase price of $120 million. That deal closed in late May. The transaction was funded with $20 million in cash at closing and a $100 million promissory note due five years from closing, accruing interest at 5% annually.
Allen has said he plans to use BuzzFeed and HuffPost to build a free-streaming platform with premium and user-generated content that he imagines will rival YouTube. Asked how he will turn things around at BuzzFeed, Allen told Variety earlier this year, “I’ve done much harder things. They don’t have problems that are that big. The money is the easy part. The strategy is to really grow this.”
Allen is also chairman and CEO of Allen Media Group, which owns 13 ABC, CBS and NBC network affiliate broadcast television stations and 10 HD television networks serving nearly 275 million subscribers, including the Weather Channel. The exec said he would combine BuzzFeed and HuffPost with Allen Media’s Local Now streaming service, which delivers localized content. “We can immediately help them bring in ad dollars,” Allen said, referring to BuzzFeed. “Free streaming is the fastest-growing thing. The ad dollars are moving rapidly from cable to streaming… The two best words in the world are ‘free’ and ‘streaming.’”
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Separately, Allen has leased a two-hour nightly comedy block on CBS and has taken over the time-slot previously occupied by “Late Night With Stephen Colbert” with episodes of “Comics Unleashed With Byron Allen,” followed by comedy show “Funny You Should Ask.”
From Variety US