IAC is selling its digital media brand CollegeHumor to one of its executives, laying off dozens of employees in the process.
Sam Reich, CollegeHumor’s chief creative officer, wrote Wednesday on Twitter that “IAC has agreed to let me run with the company myself,” adding that it has about six months of content in the can and ready to publish. “While we were on the way to becoming profitable, we were nonetheless losing money — and I myself have no money to be able to lose.”
Bloomberg first reported the move by IAC.
The holding company, led by Barry Diller and Joey Levin, acquired CollegeHumor in 2006. The site, which was founded in 1999, was one of the first digital video sites to focus on original comedy content.
One of its co-founders, Ricky Van Veen, is currently a senior executive at Facebook, while a number of its former staffers have gone on to write for Saturday Night Live and other comedy TV shows.
CollegeHumor has shifted its focus over the past year to try and diversify its revenue streams, which have been heavily reliant on advertising going back to its founding. A big part of that strategy shift is the subscription streaming service Dropout, which launched in September 2018.
