Vice reportedly planning 2015 ‘deal spree’

Vice Media CEO Shane Smith has said that the youth-focused media company aims to go “on a deal spree in 2015” after A+E Networks and Technology Crossover Ventures each recently invested US$250 million in the business.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Smith also hinted at stock market floatation, saying: “We would be stupid not to think about an IPO.”

The A+E and Technology Crossover Ventures deals in September gave each firm a 10% stake in Vice and reportedly valued the business at more than US$2.5 billion.

In October, Smith told Reuters that Vice was planning to launch local language news services in seven more countries and is also looking to make TV deals.

He said that the firm was planning to launch news services in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Mexico and Australia in the next six months, and is working on a terrestrial TV deal, claiming that an agreement to buy TV networks would come “sooner rather than later”, and that negotiations were “on the home stretch”.