CNN Acquires Social App Beme

Alston & Bird client CNN has acquired video-sharing start-up Beme, the social app co-founded by popular YouTube star Casey Neistat.

CNN is acquiring the talent and technology behind the app, which launched in summer of 2015, to create a new brand focusing on a millennial audience.

As part of the transaction, CNN will discontinue the app, with Neistat and Beme’s 11 employees joining CNN to form a separate technology unit focusing on the new media venture and CNN’s wider mobile video efforts.

Advising CNN on the transaction was an Alston & Bird team led by partner Aaron Dixon and senior associate Charlie Yates, assisted by partner Janine Brown, associate Brittany Raway (Corporate & Business Transactions), partner Brian Harvel (Federal & International Tax), and partner Katherine Wallace and associate Megan Orme (Technology and Privacy).