Vice is about to get huge
Vice Media Empire Is Near a Big Infusion of Cash “Vice was born in 1994 as an underground magazine in Montreal, financed by a government subsidy and run by three friends who started their own company because no one else would hire them.
Today it is a pan-media confederation with a record label, a book label, its own television series and a full-service media agency. It is about to grow larger still with the backing of some of the biggest names and deepest pockets in the media business.
Vice is preparing to announce investment partnerships with Tom Freston, MTV’s co-founder; WPP, the giant media conglomerate; and the Raine Group, a boutique investment firm. To help it expand, Vice has also enlisted William Morris Endeavor Entertainment and its chief executive, Ari Emanuel, to represent the company.
‘We’ve kind of been on the periphery for a long time,’ said Shane Smith, one of Vice’s founders. ‘We said it’s time to turn on the jets.’” – nytimes.com