Guardian sells PaidContent publisher to GigaOM

Guardian News and Media has sold digital business news site PaidContent and its sister sites and events to GigaOM for an undisclosed sum.

The deal, announced last night, sees GigaOM acquire all of ContextNext Media group, including the UK and US PaidContent sites, MocoNews.net and ContentSutra.com

Guardian News and Media confirmed last November that it was seeking a buyer for PaidContent - three years after it acquired the group as part of a "significant expansion" of its presence in the US market.

The newspaper publisher will take a minority stake in GigaOM as part of the deal - but the full details were not made public.

GigaOM chief executive Paul Walborsky said his group and ContentNext were "a natural fit".

He said in a statement: "Integrating our teams will enrich our editorial coverage and expand our footprint immediately in two markets that are critical to our growth - New York City and the UK."

GigaOM was founded in 2006, covering global technology innovation and its impact on business. It claims an online audience of more than 4.5 million monthly unique visitors.

In a post entitled "Why we are buying PaidContent", founder Om Malik added: "We are quite strategic about our acquisitions - we acquire media entities only if we love the people and believe that we are at the starting phase of a trend."

PaidContent was launched by Rafat Ali in 2002 and was sold to the Guardian in 2008. The group's sites claim 726,000 monthly unique visitors.

ContentNext executive Ernie Sander and editor Staci D Kramer said in a joint article last night: "The combined group will be a powerhouse, with more than 20 writers and editors, a strong presence on the East and West coasts and in Europe, and coverage of everything from media and big data, to the cloud and mobile, to book publishing and online video - not to mention the startup scene in various markets."

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