Crypto exchange platform Binance to invest $200 million in Forbes, as the media outlet prepares to go public via SPAC

Binance, the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange platform, is making a $200 million investment in Forbes, the media company said on Thursday. The investment comes at a time when the media outlet is preparing to go public via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).

Forbes Media, whose competitors include Wall Street Journal, Fortune, TheStreet, and The Fiscal Times, is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family.

The investment by Binance will replace half of the $400 million in private placement commitments already announced by Forbes and SPAC company Magnum Opus Acquisition Limited. The deal is expected to close by the end of March, Forbes and Magnum Opus said in a statement.

Forbes said in August that it would go public via a SPAC in an attempt to build on its digital transition and pursue further chances for growth. “The transactions with Magnum Opus and Binance are expected to help Forbes maximize its brand and enterprise values,” the companies said.

Sometimes called a blank-check company, SPAC is a shell company that has no operations but plans to go public with the intention of acquiring or merging with a company utilizing the proceeds of the SPAC’s initial public offering (IPO). So far this year, there are SPAC 29 deals, according to data from the SPAC analytics firm, SPACAnalytics.com.

In a tweet, Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao also confirmed the news in response to the CNBC story. “Invest in both new and old, and bridge them with crypto,” Zhao tweeted the story to his 5.1 million Twitter followers.

https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1491764180399149057

Meanwhile, as part of the investment, Binance will help advise Forbes on its digital asset and “Web3” strategy, they added, referring to a still-unrealized version of the internet where blockchain-based “decentralized” apps and cryptocurrencies are widely used.

In addition, two senior Binance executives – Chief Communications Officer Patrick Hillman and Bill Chin, the head of its venture capital arm – will join Forbes’s board of directors on the closing of the deal, the statement said.

Binance spokesperson Simon Matthews also told Reuters, “I can confirm Forbes’s editorial independence will remain sacrosanct, and entirely independent from Binance.”

Domiciled in the Cayman Islands, Binance was founded in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao and Yi He. The exchange provides a platform for trading various cryptocurrencies. Today, Binance is the world’s largest crypto exchange. Binance provides access to exchange digital currency pairs on the market while maintaining security, liquidity, enabling a safe and efficient deal with anyone, anytime and anywhere.