Digital publisher Mashable has been sold at a fire sale price which reports say is approximately $50 million.
According to Recode, Ziff Davis, a digital media subsidiary of tech company J2, is buying Mashable with plans on keeping the site running but refocusing the company on tech and tech-lifestyle content.
That company will also lay off about 50 of the site’s employees and offering other Mashable employees jobs at other Ziff Davis publications.
Source familiar with the company’s plans say that founder Pete Cashmore will stay with the company.
Mashable’s sale has come at a time when a number of online publishers that depend on digital advertising are laying off people to stay afloat.Last week, BuzzFeed laid off about 100 people — around 6 percent of its workforce — as it looked for new revenue streams to augment its core “native” ads business.