Gizmodo Acquired by European Media Firm Keleops

Technology publisher Gizmodo was acquired Tuesday by the European media company Keleops, according to its founder and CEO Jean-Guillaume Kleis. 

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The entire Gizmodo staff will receive offer letters to stay with the company, and Keleops plans to expand the team in the near future. Rory Carroll, the group editor of Gizmodo and Jalopnik, will remain with G/O Media.

“Gizmodo is one of the most iconic media [titles] in the U.S. tech space, and we want to make sure it becomes even stronger,” Kleis said. “Our plan is centered on being a leader in the technology news industry in the U.S. and abroad.”

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Keleops was founded in 2014 as a performance marketing firm, but in the last five years, it has evolved into a media company, making a number of acquisitions in the technology media space to build out its portfolio. 

The company owns several French-language technology titles, including legacy brands 01net and Presse-citron, and is based in Switzerland. Gizmodo will be Keleops’ first U.S. acquisition, although the company is on the lookout for additional purchases, Kleis said.

Continuing the trend

The sale of Gizmodo marks the eighth G/O Media property to be auctioned off in the last 15 months. Beginning in March 2023, the media company owned by the private equity firm Great Partners has sold Lifehacker, Jezebel, Splinter, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, The Takeout and The Onion. 

In January, ADWEEK first reported that G/O Media planned to sell off its portfolio. Now, only five titles remain: Quartz, The Root, Jalopnik, Kotaku and The Inventory.

The acquisition of Gizmodo reflects the ongoing value of technology publishers, which attract a desirable audience of technology enthusiasts and can generate sizable affiliate revenues by reviewing expensive products. 

For G/O Media, the divestiture comes amid a period of uncertainty in the media ecosystem. Fraud and signal loss have challenged publishers whose businesses rely on open-exchange programmatic advertising, while gains in artificial intelligence threaten to disrupt search traffic and reduce the cost of content production.

For titles in the G/O Media portfolio, which are primarily ad-funded and make ample use of aggregation techniques, these shifts present serious headwinds to its business and editorial models. After Great Hill recouped its investment in the company following its sale of Lifehacker to Ziff Davis, it began its exit of the digital media business.

Keleops and its plan for Gizmodo

Keleops primarily covers the world of technology, including news, product releases, innovative technologies and related cultural offerings, such as television and film.

The European company has around 80 staff and offices in Paris, Lyon and Switzerland, and it plans to open an office in New York. According to Kleis, it reaches around 20 million visitors monthly.

Keleops generates the bulk of its revenue from three relatively equally weighted sources: display advertising, branded content and affiliate revenue. None of the websites in its portfolio have subscription products.

The company has no immediate plans to change Gizmodo, either from a commercial or editorial perspective, according to Kleis. Instead, it plans to work with Gizmodo editor in chief Rory Carroll to discuss its forward-looking editorial plan and identify growth areas to support with investment.

“Two years ago, we acquired the most iconic technology brand in France, 01net.com, then improved its processes and added staff,” Kleis said. “We plan to do the same thing with Gizmodo. It’s an iconic brand, and we have to respect it.”