Red Ventures is an American media company that owns and operates brands such as Lonely Planet, The Points Guy, Healthline, and Bankrate.[1] Red Ventures focuses on news, advice, and review websites.[2] The company's corporate headquarters is located in Indian Land, South Carolina, a suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina.[3]
Red Ventures was founded as Red F[4] on September 29, 1999,[5] in Fort Mill, South Carolina by Ric Elias and Dan Feldstein.[6] In 2003, it was launched as Red Ventures, beginning with DIRECTV (DirectstarTV brand).[7] It acquired Modern Consumer in 2008.[8] In 2010, General Atlantic invested in Red Ventures, and its managing director Anton Levy joined the board of directors.[9][10][11] They acquired homeinsurance.com in 2012, which included a satellite office in Wilmington, North Carolina.[12
In 2015, the company got a $250 million investment from Silver Lake.[13] That same year, it doubled the size of its headquarters[14] and bought postal services company Imagitas from Pitney Bowes for $310 million.[15] The acquisition was in large part due to Imagitas' exclusive 10 year partnership with USPS[16] to facilitate the official Change of Address process, which roughly 40 million people used each year.[17]
Red Ventures acquired Soda.com in 2016.[18] In 2017, it acquired several companies including Choose Energy,[18] Allconnect[19] and Bankrate, Inc. (including The Points Guy).[20] Bankrate was acquired for $1.24 billion in cash in a deal announced July 3, 2017.[21][22] HigherEducation.com[23] and Healthline were acquired in 2019.[24]
By 2020, the company had grown into an international presence with more than 100 brands, 3,000 employees, and operations in the United Kingdom and Brazil.[25] On September 14, 2020, Red Ventures agreed to purchase the CNET Media Group from ViacomCBS for $500 million.[26] This gave the company ownership of publications including GameSpot, Metacritic, TV Guide, Chowhound, GameFAQs, Giant Bomb, Cord Cutters News, Comic Vine, and ZDNET.[27][28][29] On December 1, 2020, Red Ventures bought Lonely Planet from Tennessee-based NC2 Media for an undisclosed amount.[30][31]
In 2021, the company had 4,500 employees and 751 million readers per month.[32][33] It acquired Healthgrades.com from Mercury Healthcare for an undisclosed amount.[34] It closed Chowhound that year.[28] In 2022, the company sold the websites GameSpot, Metacritic, TV Guide, GameFAQs, Giant Bomb, Comic Vine and Cord Cutters to Fandom, Inc..[35] That year, it partnered with UnitedHealth Group's Optum Health to launch RVO Health.[36]