Vox Media acquires tech news blog Re/code

Tech news blog Re/code said yesterday that it had been acquired by online publishing company Vox Media, only 18 months after it was spun off from its former parent, The Wall Street Journal.

Vox's operations span several news and entertainment sites, including The Verge, which also covers tech news.

In an online statement, Re/code founders Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg said they would continue their site separately but at times collaborate with The Verge.

Re/code was focused on tech companies and business news, while The Verge reported from a culture and lifestyle perspective.

Terms of the acquisition were not revealed.

The blog was started by founders at The Wall Street Journal, owned by News Corp, where it was known as AllThingsD.

Following the spinoff, Re/code had continued to stage successful industry conferences and in the process, earned a reputation for breaking exclusive stories. Its readership though had lagged.

Re/code counted 1.5 million unique visitors in April, as against 12 million for the Verge and 53 million for all Vox sites combined, according to the comScore research service.

Another tech news site, GigaOm, closed down earlier this year, while several others continue to cover the tech industry in New York and Silicon Valley, and some have added staff in recent months.

A post on Re/code website said yesterday, Vox Media had acquired Revere Digital the owner of the blog.

Reuters reported citing a source, familiar with the transaction as saying that Comcast Corp's NBCUniversal exchanged its minority interest in Re/code for shares in Vox Media, a source said.

"We want to assure you that this combination is designed to bolster and enrich Re/code, and that we will continue to publish under the same name and leadership, with editorial independence," Re/code Mossberg and Swisher wrote.