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Minute Media CEO: We may consider an IPO in the future

Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi and Emily McCormick speak with Minute Media CEO, Asaf Peled, about the company’s expansion, sports betting, outlook for going public, and more.

Video transcript

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BRIAN SOZZI: Minute Media has been quietly building quite the impressive portfolio of digital media brands. The publisher now has six brands under its umbrella headlined by The Players Tribune, Fan-Sided, and Mental Floss. Some on the street are speculating Minute Media could be a public company soon, following the likes of BuzzFeed and Forbes into public markets.

Asaf Peled is the founder and CEO of Minute Media and joins us now. Asaf, good to see you here this morning. So six brands under your umbrella-- talk to us about the strategy of why you're out there acquiring some of these brands.

ASAF PELED: Sure. Thank you, Brian. Good morning. Pleasure to be here with you today. So in fact, there is actually a seventh brand that's not out there on the list which stands for our open tech platform called Voltax And I would say that's the one main reason, the one driver, behind the acquisitions and the overall growth of the business.

So Voltax is really the main asset that we've been developing out of our tech center in Tel Aviv over the past decade. And it allows any content business, any publisher, any media company to scale their content operation. So as we have scaled Voltax, we realized that we're in a great position to also acquire leading content brands like The Players Tribune, like Mental Floss, in addition to the ones that we have developed that you see here, like 90 Min, and really use our tech to take these content brands to the next level.

BRIAN SOZZI: So it sounds like you view yourself more as a tech company than a news publisher. Is that right?

ASAF PELED: That's correct, right. So as you can tell from the accent, we started the business in Tel Aviv. It's not really a media center or a SportsCenter. It's first and foremost a technology center. And that's really the one thing that sets us apart. That's the one thing that drives our content plays over time. But you are right, Brian, yes.

EMILY MCCORMICK: Asaf, this is Emily. I'm wondering, as you think about the various brands that you have under-- within this ecosystem, what do you think is the main priority right now? Where is the big growth area that you see your company heading towards?

ASAF PELED: Sure. So I would say it's probably two things. So if you look at the brands that we have built or acquired over the years, the one main theme and strategic objective for the business was to really dominating in global sports, right? So we felt that sports is probably most compelling digital content category out there.

And so same as we have acquired The Players Tribune or Fan-Sided to take our positioning in sports digitally to a new level, we feel that to continue to expand our sports offering is one of the key priorities. So for instance, sports betting is a huge new and up and coming space in the US. So we could be acquiring assets in the sports betting area. So that's just one way to look at our potential M&A strategy and opportunities going forward.

BRIAN SOZZI: Asaf, how big is the business? How much in terms of sales will you make this year, and is it profitable?

ASAF PELED: Yeah, so obviously, I cannot share the exact figures, but you may assume that we are looking at three digits in terms of millions of dollars growing substantially in 2020 despite. COVID and despite the fact that there was no sports for some time, we have still managed to grow the business by 40%, the top line. And because we were a tech first company, I would say that in the near term, we are more focused on investing in our tech and platform and in growth than generating near-term profitability. So you may expect us to show, I would say, profits in a couple of years.

BRIAN SOZZI: Now do you want to just primarily stay focused on sports publications, or-- I know you have raised some money within the past year. Do you want to go out and broaden it out a little bit and get into news?

ASAF PELED: Yeah, so I would say in terms of the content that we own like The Players Tribune or some of the other brands that you mentioned, our focus is predominantly sports and culture. Yet if you look at our open technology platform, we actually allow other publishers, other media companies, to tap into our technology and grow their content business. So when it comes to that side of the business, we're a lot more open to new content categories.

So again, it could be culture, could be entertainment, could be lifestyle, probably less so about news-- something more synergetic to our sports properties and to our fan base. But with that tech, we could be a lot more diverse with our content category expansions going forward. May not be through acquisitions. Can also be through integrated partnerships into our tech platform.

BRIAN SOZZI: And lastly, Asaf, do you see yourself as a public company this year?

ASAF PELED: So again, no secret that a business of our size and scale coupled with the very high top line growth rate puts us in a position to consider an IPO in the future. You know, cannot comment on specific timing, but definitely, that's something that we could consider at some point.

BRIAN SOZZI: All right, we'll leave it there. Asaf Peled, founder and CEO of Minute Media, good to see you and look forward to continuing to follow your journey.