Struggling news startup the Messenger is reportedly in talks with a group of conservative media and business executives, Axios reported late Thursday.
The publication said the group is proposing $30 million for a 51% stake, which would put the embattled news site’s valuation at a bloated $60 million. The deal would require founder and chief executive Jimmy Finkelstein to give up control.
Axios also separately reported that the Messenger, which laid off nearly two dozen employees of its 300-person staff amid cratering cash reserves, is looking to raise $20 million in order to stay afloat.
In regards to the investor group, Axios said they met with Finkelstein at Mar-a-Lago, the Florida private club and residence of former President Donald Trump.
They included Omeed Malik, a financier who backed Tucker Carlson’s new media venture; Garrett Ventry, a Republican political operative; Ryan Coyne, founder of digital media agency Starboard; and George Farmer, the former CEO of Parler who sits on the board of Britain’s conservative news network GB News.
Neither the Messenger nor the group responded to requests for comment.
Axios said the group claims the investors “aren’t interested in getting involved with the company’s editorial efforts,” but are looking to grow the company’s revenue beyond drumming up traffic for advertising.
Still, if a deal goes through, it would likely cause friction inside the newsroom, which is guided by the mantra to cover the news in a nonpartisan fashion. Staffers have already chafed at Finkelstein’s close relationship with Trump.
Last month, Finkelstein instructed editors to take down stories on Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York so as to not overwhelm the homepage, causing a firestorm inside the Messenger, Semafor reported.
Meanwhile, the company, which launched with $50 million in May, has struggled to gain traction, generating less than $5 million in revenue last year and failing to make a profit, according to Axios.
It also lured in just 12.5 million unique visitors in November, a source with knowledge said, which is far less than the 100 million monthly readers and $100 million in revenue that Richard Beckman, the site’s president, told the New York Times earlier this year.
Beckman announced he is exiting the company on Jan. 31, citing “short-term” health issues, but insiders told The Post that his vision for the outlet also clashed with that of Finkelstein.
Following news of Beckman’s departure and layoffs at the firm, Semafor reported that the site would shut down by the end of the month if it did not receive an infusion of cash.
A rep for the Messenger shot that report down.
“We have already secured investment as part of our second raise, and so the notion of us discussing closure is beyond absurd,” the rep told The Post.
Meanwhile, inside the Messenger, employees are freaking out over the flurry of bad news and are demanding answers from Finkelstein and editor in chief Dan Wakeford, who has been hard to pin down.
On Thursday, the Messenger’s head of communications tried to calm staffers via the company’s internal Slack channel, telling them that Finkelstein would hold meetings with employees in the coming days, the Daily Beast first reported.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
