Neistat has millions of people who regularly watch his YouTube blogs daily. He has a huge fan base that is coveted by both media and marketers. CNN is hoping to leverage Neistat, his app and his fan base.
CNN said it agreed to buy both the talent and technology behind Beme. As part of the deal, the social app’s 12 employees will join CNN. However, the terms were not publicly made.
Matt Hackett, CTO and co-founder of Beme, said the acquisition allows them to give their mission more than a single, startup-budgeted shot. He added that they will hunker down and create something new.
Beme launched in 2015, but it never reached its full potential. Although it has been downloaded over 500,000 times, it faces stiff competition from similar apps such as Musical.ly and Snapchat.
In fact, things slowed down for Beme so much that Neistat posted a video on YouTube. He explained what happened to the app. The video preceded a relaunch of the app back in May, and many of the bugs were fixed.
CNN plans on shutting down Beme and creating a new brand. As of now, Beme is still available to download from the Google Play store and the Apple App Store.
As for how much CNN paid for Beme, it’s thought to be $25 million. Neistat’s YouTube channel is separate from the deal, which means he can still create videos.
