Observable

Observable Media, Inc. (branded as Observable, stylized as ⬤BSERVABLE) is an American digital media company founded by Lotus. The company was founded as Lotus Digital, a division of Lotus, around 2020, and is located in New York City. They have additional offices in Washington D.C., Chicago, San Francisco, Austin, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, London, Paris, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Minato City, Poznan, Sydney, Cologne and Montreal.

Observable's editorial brands include Vox, Tastemade, Complex, Pigeons & Planes, Sole Collector, First We Feast, WatchMojo, Fandom, among others. These editorial brands, especially those under Complex and Vox, are built on a "vertical content platform" co-developed by them and their sister company Krake, named Binocular, which has integrated content management and marketing solutions.

As of January 2021, Comscore ranks Observable's division Vox Media as the 24th-most popular media company among users from the United States, and Observable is expected to rank higher once the new company's formation is complete.

As Lotus Digital
As Styhon Battersea, a company previously founded by Kasperi Salovaara and his friend Oliver Watson, was being absorbed into Watson's company Illustrious, Salovaara arranged a deal to acquire eight companies from the company's digital entertainment division: Complex Networks, Jukin Media, WatchMojo, Vox Media, Mondo Media, ScaleLab, Nordic United and Tastemade. The deal did not include the Select All, The Strategist, The Cut, The Intelligencer, Grub Street nor Vulture brands, and was made to avoid anti-trust sanctions. It also didn't include any podcasts.

Later in December 2020, Lotus Digital acquired Fandom Inc and Long Haul Management, after bidding wars between them, Landshade Media and The Eclipse Group.

As Observable
In February 2021, Lotus Digital rebranded and then incorporated as Observable Media, as they acquired the defunct Splinter News from G/O Media, part of Illustrious Digital Media. They also announced a production deal with YouTuber Anthony Padilla's production company Pressalike, for programs for the Tentpole and Netflix streaming services. The same month, Fandom acquired digital games marketplace Fanatical.

The rebranding also included a restructuring and a shift in focus to more engaging content for "the Facebook and YouTube audiences", ending in the sale of ScaleLab, Mondo Media, Long Haul Management and Jukin Media to IDM. However, the CEO of parent company Lotus, Kasperi Salovaara, insists that Splinter News will still be a blog, when revived by the end of 2021. The restructuring also included the finalization of the folding of two editorial brands into Complex: Mountain Dew-sponsored Green Label, and RIDE which was a partnership with Tony Hawk.

On February 28, 2021, Observable and Rooster Teeth announced the revival of Machinima (with a new name as "Machinima by Fandom"), with an upcoming bundle of videos and series previously available in former YouTube channels managed by RT and Fandom (such as CowChop, Machinima VS and Happy Hour) coming by June 2021. They said to have signed many deals with as many of their former partners as possible to get the rights to reupload such content, which reportedly took around a year and USD$450 million as compensation for past trouble caused by Machinima as a multi-channel network.

In October 2021, Observable sold the revived Splinter blog and Tastemade to Illustrious Digital Media, in exchange of Gawker. They also started negotiations with Eclipse Digital on a "merger of equals".

Unions
As Observable consists out of already established digital media companies with their own recognized unions, they subsequently agreed to recognize these unions as well, especially as part of the parent company's union-positive strategy.

Assets

 * Complex Networks
 * Complex
 * Pigeons and Planes
 * First We Feast
 * Sole Collector
 * ComplexCon - an annual festival in the form of thematics exhibitions, music concerts, discussion panels, streetwear culture and content related to pop culture and mass audience entertainment
 * Complex Shop
 * WatchMojo
 * WatchMojo UK
 * SoundMojo
 * ContexTV
 * MsMojo
 * MojoTravels
 * MojoTalks
 * MojoPlays
 * GetMojo
 * UnVeiled
 * Vox Media
 * SB Nation
 * Vox
 * Recode
 * Eater
 * New York Magazine
 * Curbed
 * The Verge
 * Polygon
 * Epic
 * Vox Media Studios
 * Vox Creative
 * Fandom
 * Screen Junkies
 * Machinima by Fandom - joint venture with Rooster Teeth
 * Curse Media
 * Fanatical
 * Tastemade
 * Splinter News
 * Binocular - co-developed with Krake Advertising Platform Solutions; formed out of a merger between Complex Networks's advertising network (branded as Complex) and Vox Media's Chorus, Concert and Forte
 * Coral - previously owned by Vox Media