© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The Comcast NBC logo is displayed on a building in Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 13, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
(Reuters) – Comcast Corp has cut its stake in BuzzFeed Inc by 8.5% since the end of January, taking advantage of a rally in shares of the digital media company following reports of a plan to partner with OpenAI, the artificial intelligence behind ChatGPT.
So far he has sold more than 11 million BuzzFeed shares since January 30, reducing his stake from 24% to 15%. The sale brought Comcast (NASDAQ:) about $28 million, according to a Reuters estimate.
It sold about four million shares for an average price of about $2.90 a share in late January, and more recently sold another 500,000 shares for an average of $2.05 a share, Comcast filings showed.
NBCUniversal, Comcast’s entertainment unit, had invested $200 million in BuzzFeed in 2015 and injected another $200 million in 2016, valuing the company at about $1.7 billion.
As of Tuesday’s close, BuzzFeed had a market value of nearly $250 million. The company did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
BuzzFeed shares, which were trading at 69 cents at the end of 2022, rose as much as $4.25 in January following media reports about a multi-billion dollar content deal with Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:) and plans to use OpenAI’s ChatGPT .
Retail investor interest in AI-related stocks has surged since last month after OpenAI attracted a multi-billion dollar investment from microsoft corporation (NASDAQ:).
BuzzFeed, known for its online quizzes, has cut its workforce in 2022 as companies cut advertising spending on concerns about the slowing economy.
