TechCrunch has changed hands once more. Yahoo has sold the popular tech news site to private equity firm Regent for an undisclosed amount, according to an announcement on Friday.
Regent has been moving in the media space, having just acquired Foundry—the publisher behind PCWorld, Macworld, and TechAdvisor—earlier this week.
Founded in 2005, TechCrunch has seen multiple ownership changes over the years. AOL first bought the site in 2010, and when Verizon later acquired AOL in 2015 (and Yahoo in 2017), TechCrunch became part of a larger media division called Oath. This division was later rebranded as Verizon Media. In 2021, Verizon sold its media assets to Apollo Global Management for $5 billion, leading to the company being renamed Yahoo.
TechCrunch’s editor-in-chief, Connie Loizos, explained the decision, writing, “Yahoo decided to sell TechCrunch because, in the end, our DNA is simply different from the rest of its portfolio.” However, Yahoo will still retain a small stake in the company.
Yahoo continues to own other media properties like Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Sports, Yahoo Finance, and Yahoo News. It also still holds onto Engadget, another major tech site, which faced staff layoffs across its leadership team last year.
