Barstool Sports just got bought at a $10 million to $15 million valuation, and its founder is 'kinda rich now'
But if you're a Barstool Sports fan, you're not shocked. The crude, funny sports guy lingo is right in line with the brand that founder Dave Portnoy has spent years building, and about five million monthly readers have come to love.
Barstool Sports, the Boston-based satirical sports and men's lifestyle blog that's popular among millennial men, announced in an emergency press conference that it had been acquired by Peter Chernin's Chernin Digital Group. In a Periscope livestream, Portnoy told viewers that he sold 51% of his stake and the deal was less than $20 million - a $10-15 million valuation specifically.
Set to "New York, New York", its CEO David Portnoy and his "deputies" stood in Times Square to tell the world about their impending relocation to New York and where the sports site will go from here.
"Do I like Manhattan? No. Do I want to be in Manhattan? No. Do I like these people looking at me during this press conference? No. But it's the right move," Portnoy says.
Portnoy, who generally goes by 'El Presidente', went through the site's laundry list of failures and acknowledged that it could use a boost from a bigger media organization. This acquisition, in which Portnoy sold his majority stake, will help take this sports site "to the moon," Portnoy says, but it wasn't his "cash out" moment. Meanwhile, if you're funny, Portnoy encourages you not to work for "an egg at SB Nation or all these other losers" and to join his now growing (and newly New York-based) team.