Vox Media Acquires Re/code

Digital media conglomerate Vox Media has acquired Re/code, the technology industry news publication led by renowned tech journalists Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg. The news was first reported today by the New York Times.

Financial details of the size of the deal, which was reportedly all-stock, have not been disclosed.

Re/code launched in January 2014 by Swisher and Mossberg and a number of their colleagues from AllThingsD, the erstwhile tech news vertical of the Wall Street Journal which spun out as an independent entity in September 2013 after months of negotiations. According to the New York Times, Re/code has 44 full-time employees, all of whom are expected to join Vox as part of the acquisition.

It’s also worth mentioning that Vox Media owns the Verge, so this deal brings two formidable tech publications — with quite different focuses and reporting styles — together under one roof. It will be really interesting to see how they both grow and complement each other in the months ahead.

It’s just the latest in a series of big news stories about the world of tech media, which has become more crowded and frothy in recent years, commensurate with the booming industry that it covers. Well-funded media upstarts such as Vox and Buzzfeed are hiring sharp reporting teams and angling for unique Silicon Valley coverage, alongside slightly older players in the space such as TechCrunch, Ars Technica, Wired, VentureBeat, and the like (please don’t be mad at me if I didn’t include your publication here. There are seriously just so many of us.) Meanwhile, established mastheads such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and CNBC are also now directing significant amounts of resources at covering the tech scene. It’s a pretty crazy time around these parts.

So if you like tech news, you’re in luck — it seems that there will be no shortage of it for the foreseeable future.