Cox Enterprises scoops up Axios for $525 million

Cox Communications parent company Cox Enterprises inked a deal to acquire well-known news outlet Axios for more than half a billion dollars, in a move the former pitched as part of an effort to diversify its business. As part of the transaction, Cox Enterprises CEO Alex Taylor will join Axios’ board. Axios co-founders Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen and Roy Schwartz will lead editorial operations and retain “substantial stakes” in the company. Axios HQ, the company’s communications software business, will be spun out into an independent company that will be majority-owned by VandeHei, Allen and Schwartz, with Cox a minority stakeholder. Though financial terms of the deal were not disclosed in the official press release, Axios pegged the sale price at  $525 million. The move comes after Cox Enterprises invested an undisclosed amount in Axios in November 2021 as part of the latter’s Series D funding round. That round reportedly valued the company at $430 million.