Binance will become one of the largest co-owners of Forbes magazine - media

The Binance cryptocurrency exchange is preparing to make a $200 million strategic investment in Forbes magazine, CNBC reports, citing sources.

According to them, the financing will allow Forbes to implement a plan to merge with a stock market-listed specialized company for targeted mergers and acquisitions (SPAC) in the first quarter of this year. Binance will take over half of the $400 million in institutional funding that Forbes announced in August.

As a result, Binance will become one of the two largest co-owners of Forbes ahead of the publication's listing on the New York Stock Exchange. In 2014, a 95 percent stake in Forbes was sold to Hong Kong-based Integrated Whale Media at a valuation of $475 million.

"This is the first step towards a marketplace with really broad potential in the distribution of Web 3.0-based tools," said a source familiar with Binance's strategy– "Our industry has experienced tremendous growth, and we think it would be foolish not to explore areas ripe for infrastructure investments."

Binance contacted Forbes after identifying three media platforms for potential investments. Industry participants expect that this year will be rich in such transactions, while cryptocurrency companies are eager to invest the money collected during recent investment rounds.

At the end of 2020, Binance had a conflict with Forbes, after the magazine in one of its publications accused the exchange of deliberately organizing a corporate structure that would allow misleading regulators and secretly making money on American crypto investors. Binance subsequently sued Forbes for reputation damage, but withdrew it in February 2021.