The shares of BuzzFeed Inc BZFD.O fell 13% in their Nasdaq debut on Monday, after the digital media company completed a $1.5 billion blank-check merger last week that saw a majority of investors withdraw their money.
New York-based BuzzFeed's stock opened up 14% at $10.95 and rose to $14.77 before erasing the gains in volatile trading. The shares were changing hands at $8.36 each.
Last week, BuzzFeed said it would receive only 6% or nearly $16 million of proceeds from the trust account of the blank-check company after shareholders redeemed a majority of their stake. 890 Fifth Avenue Partners Inc, the publicly listed acquisition vehicle named after the fictional Avengers mansion, raised $287.5 million in its public offering in January.
Special purpose acquisition companies typically sell shares at $10 apiece, put the cash in a trust account and then search for a company to buy. Its shareholders can choose to redeem their shares in exchange for cash.
BuzzFeed, which produces news, videos and online quizzes, was founded by Jonah Peretti and John Johnson in 2006 and has gotten a lot of attention among the youth.
It split its news and entertainment businesses in 2016 and is now in charge of its news and entertainment businesses. In June of this year, BuzzFeed acquired the youth entertainment company Complex Networks from Hearst Corp and Verizon, which was bought by news site HuffPost from Verizon Communications Inc. VZ.N.