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- Former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has been buying shares of BuzzFeed.
- He says he wants to remake the publisher, starting with its board, and insisted on adding 3 new members by July 15.
- But it looks like that's not happening. So what's his next move?
Here's an update from Vivek Ramaswamy's attempt to take over, or at least influence, BuzzFeed: Nothing's happening.
Which seems to have been the case since Ramaswamy, a former Republican presidential candidate, disclosed that he was buying up shares of the digital publisher earlier this year.
There's a reason the non-news is worth noting today, though: It's July 15, the deadline Ramaswamy set for BuzzFeed to expand its board of directors by adding three new members he proposed.
And from what I can tell, that deadline turned out to not be a real deadline.
Last month, Ramaswamy and two of his proposed directors met with BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti via conference call, which people on both sides of the table described as cordial. There is also talk of a second, in-person discussion at some point.
But there's been no movement to actually put any of the men Ramaswamy endorsed — media consultant Chris Balfe, podcaster Patrick Bet-David, and Clay Travis, who created the conservative sports site OutKick — on the board, per two people familiar with the situation.
So, assuming that the status quo holds, what next?
"The first meeting was productive, and Vivek looks forward to continuing the dialogue," emails Tricia McLaughlin, a Ramaswamy PR rep. BuzzFeed PR adds that Ramaswamy's board recommendations "will be sent to [BuzzFeed's board of directors'] governance as per the formal process that he is no doubt aware of."
So, again: status quo. And if Ramaswamy has any plans to ratchet up pressure on BuzzFeed, he has yet to disclose them.
Which leaves us right where we were back in May, when Ramaswamy's move to buy BuzzFeed equity — he currently owns 8.9% of the company's common shares — became public information.
That is: We're still wondering if Ramaswamy has spent millions on BuzzFeed because he wants attention, or wants to make money, or maybe both. But it's hard to see what he's gotten out of it to date.
In the meantime, he's scheduled to speak at this week's Republican convention.