G/O Media, Great Hill Partners’ roll-up of former Gawker titles, is ending the way many of this decade's digital media consolidation plays have: asset by asset.

Last week’s sale of Kotaku to Switzerland-based Keleops leaves only The Root on the auction block and closes a six-year chapter that never delivered the post-Gawker “hockey stick” growth of the initial thesis.

In 2019, Great Hill paid “much less” than the $135 million Univision had spent three years earlier to acquire Gizmodo Media Group (Gawker’s post-bankruptcy assets).

The turnaround plan was relatively standard: install new leadership, streamline adtech, and cross-sell audiences. Industry veteran Jim Spanfeller, brought in as chief executive, said at the time that G/O Media was “in an ideal position to capitalize on this dynamic.”

Following last week's Kotaku sale, Spanfeller published a 'G/O Media Epilogue' with a more beaten-down tone.

“It became clear to our investors that it was time to move on,” Spanfeller wrote, adding that Great Hill “has been a very good partner” and that his note was “in no way a suggestion that Great Hill was in some way acting like a rapacious private equity firm.”

Despite never achieving the desired growth, Spanfeller says that the deal at least avoided some of the worst outcomes seen at peers. “We can state that, even before completing all of the transactions, we will exit having increased shareholder value. A feat that few other companies in our space can claim."

"Just look at the issues surrounding companies like Vice [backers including TPG; taken over by Fortress-led lender group], BuzzFeed [trading down nearly 95 percent from its de-SPAC price], BusinessInsider [owned by KKR-backed Axel Springer] and Vox [backers including General Atlantic and Accel; last raised at a valuation 50 percent below its prior round] to name only a few."

Spanfeller blamed G/O’s outcome on pandemic-era ad recessions, the dominance of Google and Meta, and prolonged battles with writers’ unions.

In practice, programmatic CPMs never recovered, Facebook referral traffic collapsed, and early experiments with AI-generated articles—touted by Spanfeller as evidence that “innovation was always a constant”—only ended up alienating readers and embarrassing the brand.

Frequent public infighting between Spanfeller and various editorial teams didn't help.

At Deadspin, one of the platform's flagship assets, staff quit en masse in 2019 after being instructed to pull back on editorial commentary and just “stick to sports.” Similar clashes at Jezebel, Gizmodo, and Kotaku culminated in a multi-site strike in 2022.

After their departure, the former Deadspin team regrouped to found an independent reboot of the outlet, called Defector. In their 2020 post-mortem, the group blamed G/O Media's middling trajectory on Spanfeller's overly aggressive monetization and steady brand dilution across the portfolio.

The situation never improved much, and Great Hill started its piecemeal exit process for G/O’s publications more than two years ago.

Lifehacker went to Ziff Davis in 2023; Jezebel, The A.V. Club, and Quartz followed in 2023–25; The Onion, Deadspin, Jalopnik, and now Kotaku were each carved out.

One final G/O property remains. Black culture and news outlet The Root is still searching for a buyer, at which point Great Hill's latest digital media foray will come to a close.

Along the way, the former Deadspin team at Defector has been gleefully tracking events, publishing articles with titles like 'Jim Spanfeller Is A Third-Rate Parasite' and yesterday's triumphant 'Jim Spanfeller Somehow Worse At Writing Than Running A Media Company'.

• TPG completed its acquisition of the remaining 70% stake it didn't already hold in DIRECTV from AT&T (NYSE: T) for $7.6 billion.

• BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) agreed to acquire ElmTree Funds, a net-lease real estate investment firm with $7.3 billion in assets under management.

• Linden Capital Partners and GIC agreed to acquire a minority stake in Klick Group, a Canadian healthcare marketing firm, from GTCR at a $2.5 billion valuation.

• I Squared Capital has emerged as frontrunner to acquire Goodpack, a Singapore-based logistics provider of reusable bulk containers, from KKR in a potential $1.5 billion deal, per WSJ.

• Stonepeak Partners is in talks to invest more than $1 billion via a structured equity deal in Princeton Digital Group, a Singapore-based data center operator backed by Warburg Pincus, per Bloomberg.

• Octopus Energy is exploring a spinoff and stake sale of its Kraken Technologies unit, which could be valued at £10 billion, per Sky News.

• CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV) agreed to acquire Core Scientific (NASDAQ: CORZ), a data center infrastructure provider, for $9 billion in stock.

• Telenor (Oslo: TEL) agreed to acquire GlobalConnect's Norwegian consumer fiber business from EQT and Pantheon Infrastructure for NOK 6.0 billion.

• Royal Gold (NYSE: RGLD) agreed to acquire Sandstorm Gold Royalties (NYSE: SAND) in a $3.5 billion all-stock deal, and separately agreed to acquire Horizon Copper for $196 million in cash.

• Capgemini agreed to acquire WNS (NYSE: WNS), a provider of AI-powered intelligent operations services, for $3.3 billion.

• Advent International has hired Rothschild to explore the sale of Idemia's public security unit, in a deal that could value the business at €2 billion to €3 billion, per Bloomberg.

• Constellation Wealth Capital acquired a minority stake in Merit Financial Advisors, an Atlanta-based RIA with $20 billion in assets under advisement, from Wealth Partners Capital Group and HGGC.

• TopBuild Corp. (NYSE: BLD) agreed to acquire Phoenix-based Progressive Roofing, a commercial roofing installation services provider, from Bow River Capital for $810 million in cash.

• Sunil Mittal and Warburg Pincus submitted a $720 million bid to acquire a 49% stake in Haier India, a home appliances manufacturer, from its Chinese parent company.

• Wabtec Corporation (NYSE: WAB) agreed to acquire Frauscher Sensor Technology, an Austrian provider of rail detection and control systems, for €675 million from Delachaux.

• Apollo acquired a 30% stake in TradeInn, one of Europe's largest sporting goods e-commerce platforms, from Suma Capital.

• H2O America (Nasdaq: HTO) agreed to acquire Quadvest, a Houston-area water and wastewater utility, for $540 million.

• Samsung Electronics agreed to acquire Xealth, a digital health integration platform serving over 500 U.S. hospitals, to strengthen its connected care capabilities.

• Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe acquired a majority stake in AIA Contract Documents, a Washington, D.C.-based risk management platform for the construction industry, with True Wind Capital retaining a minority stake.

• Chamberlain Group, a Blackstone-backed company, agreed to acquire Arrow Tru-Line, a manufacturer of garage door components with six facilities across the US and Canada, from MiddleGround Capital.

• Hg agreed to acquire A-LIGN, a Tampa cybersecurity compliance services provider, from Warburg Pincus.

• GHO Capital Partners agreed to acquire a majority stake in FotoFinder Systems, a German provider of skin imaging solutions that recently acquired DermLite, from EMZ Partners, which will retain a minority position.

• Summit Partners made a minority growth investment in Quorso, a London-based provider of intelligent retail operations software that turns store data into actionable insights.

• Oak Hill Capital Management and Pamlico Capital Management acquired a majority stake in Socket Fiber, a Missouri-based internet service provider, and will merge it with IdeaTek.

• PestCo, a St. Louis-based portfolio company of Thompson Street Capital Partners, acquired May Pest, an Illinois-based pest control services provider.

• TEAM Technologies, an Arlington Capital Partners portfolio company, acquired Duke Empirical, a Morgan Hill, California-based manufacturer of advanced catheters and delivery systems for cardiovascular devices.

• Premier Radiology Services, a Grovecourt Capital Partners portfolio company, acquired MetisMD, a Chicago-based teleradiology provider specializing in musculoskeletal imaging.

• Alliance Technical Group, backed by Morgan Stanley Investment Management, acquired ESC Spectrum, an Austin-based provider of emissions monitoring and data acquisition systems.

• Axis Insurance Managers, backed by Lee Equity Partners, acquired JT Insurance Services, a British Columbia-based commercial insurance broker focused on real estate, construction, and high-net-worth clients.

• MarcyPen Capital Partners and Brand Velocity Group agreed to acquire a majority stake in GLD, a Miami-based jewelry and lifestyle brand, from H.I.G., which will retain a minority stake alongside the founder.

• Rhône is in exclusive talks to acquire majority stakes in medical device makers Direct Healthcare Group and Invacare.

• Lenders HPS Investment Partners and Arcmont Asset Management are in advanced talks to take control of Dainese, an Italian protective gear maker, from Carlyle, per Bloomberg.

• Shein, a fast-fashion retailer backed by General Atlantic, HongShan, and Mubadala, plans to confidentially file for a Hong Kong IPO, following unsuccessful listing attempts in the U.S. and London.

• Rent-A-Container, an Ann Arbor-based portfolio company of Kinderhook Industries, acquired Eagle Leasing, a provider of portable storage containers in the Northeastern U.S.

Tech, Vertical SaaS, & Misc. Enterprise

• PetroApp, a Saudi digital fuel and fleet management platform, raised $50 million in new funding led by Jadwa Investment, with participation from Bunat Ventures.

• Arago, a Paris-based photonic AI processor maker, raised $26 million in seed funding co-led by Earlybird, Protagonist, and Visionaries Tomorrow, with participation from Generative IQ and C4 Ventures.

• AirGarage, a digital parking operations platform, raised $23 million in Series B funding from Founders Fund.

• GetWhy, a consumer research platform, raised $20 million in Series A extension funding led by PeakSpan Capital, with participation from Arbejdernes Landsbank.

• Parter, an AI platform for hardware manufacturing teams, raised $5.5 million in seed funding led by StageOne Ventures, with participation from Zenda Capital and Mercer Ventures.

• Pimloc, an AI video privacy and analytics platform, raised $5 million in new funding co-led by Amadeus Capital Partners and Edge Ventures, with participation from Zetta Venture Partners, MD One, and Symvan Capital.

Fintech

• Huspy, a UAE and Spain-based real estate technology platform for property professionals, raised $59 million in Series B funding led by Balderton Capital, with participation from Peak XV, ExBorder Partners, Turmeric Capital, BY Ventures, Dara Management, COTU Ventures, and KE Partners.

• Gradient Labs, a London-based AI company automating customer service for financial institutions, raised $13 million in Series A funding led by Redpoint Ventures, with participation from LocalGlobe, Puzzle Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures, and Exceptional Capital.

• Kuru Labs, a DeFi liquidity platform on the Monad blockchain, raised $11.6 million in Series A funding led by Paradigm, with participation from Electric Capital.

Consumer & Media

• CarOnSale, a Berlin-based used car trading marketplace, raised €70 million in Series C funding led by Northzone, with participation from HV Capital, Insight Partners, Stripes, and Creandum.

• Ekho, an online vehicle sales platform, raised $17.3 million in Series A funding led by Activant Capital, with participation from JPMorgan Payments, Winnebago Industries, RiverPark Ventures, Westcott Investment Group, and Y Combinator.

Healthcare

• Xpanceo, a Dubai-based smart contact lens developer for night vision and health monitoring, raised $250 million in Series A funding led by Opportunity Venture.

• Biorce, a Barcelona-based AI platform for optimizing clinical trials, raised €5 million in new funding led by Norrsken VC, with participation from YZR Capital and Mustard Seed Maze.

Industrials, Greentech, & Other

• Tulum Energy, a company using methane pyrolysis for clean hydrogen production, raised $27 million in seed funding co-led by TDK Ventures and CDP Venture Capital, with participation from TechEnergy Ventures, MITO Tech Ventures, and Doral Energy-Tech Ventures.

• Filics, a Munich-based autonomous pallet-handling robots company, raised €13.5 million in Series A funding co-led by Sandwater, Alven, F-LOG Ventures, and Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund, with participation from Bayern Kapital, Capnamic, and 10x Founders.

• Chloris Geospatial, a forest carbon monitoring platform, raised $8.5 million in Series A funding led by Future Energy Ventures, with participation from AXA IM Alts, At One Ventures, Cisco Foundation, Counteract, and Orbia Ventures.

• Solarock, a French home solar solutions platform, raised €7 million in Series A funding led by Pale Blue Dot, with participation from Noa, Ring Capital, and Kima Ventures.

• Red Dot Capital Partners, an Israel-based venture firm, raised $320 million for its third fund focused on early growth-stage technology companies.

• Boldstart Ventures, a Miami-based venture firm, raised $250 million for its seventh fund.

• Heavybit raised $180 million across its fifth flagship pre-seed/seed fund and second opportunity fund.

• LNC Partners is raising up to $150 million for its third lower middle market fund.

• Ego Death Capital raised $100 million for its second fund to lead Series A rounds in revenue-generating Bitcoin protocol companies.

• Sweetwater Private Equity of Encinitas is raising up to $100 million for a select growth fund.

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