Will Buzzfeed reboot as anti-woke? The answer may surprise you …

Buzzfeed (NASDAQ:BZFD) shares soared over 45% in Wednesday’s dealing, trading as high as $4.56 at one point, as it emerged that ‘anti-woke’ crusader and Republican Vivek Ramaswamy had built a 7.7% stake in the business.

It comes as Buzzfeed finds itself in the doldrums with the media group now significantly smaller than it used to be following the closure of its news division last April.

Indeed, according to a stock market filing, Ramaswamy paid just $3.95 million for 2.72 million Buzzfeed shares to take his interest to 7.7%.

It is a far cry from the $400 million that Comcast (via NBC) invested in the business a decade ago, when it valued to clickbait-pioneering online publisher at around $1.7 billion.

In New York, at around midday on Wednesday, Buzzfeed was up 29% changing hands at $3.23 per share.

So what’s next for Buzzfeed?

We’ll stop short of making a speculative listicle of reasons why Ramaswamy may be interesting in buying into what may be a ‘reboot-ready’ media company.

But it is worth pointing to the evident popularity of Rumble Inc, the free-speech advocating Youtube rival that’s found traction among conservative voices and audiences, and also note the amount of attention garnered by Trump Media, owner of the Truth Social app.

Ramaswamy will, according to the filing, seek talks with Buzzfeed management over a broad range of operational and strategic matters.

The billionaire and political figure, who was a founder of drug firm Roivant Sciences, put himself forward to be selected as the Republican nomination for president of the United States, for the upcoming 2024 before ending his campaign and endorsing Donald Trump.