Japanese company sells financial website Quartz to management

Quartz co-founder and CEO Zach Seward has reached an agreement to acquire Quartz from Uzabase, the company’s owner for the past two years.

Seward, who remains CEO, is partnering with editor-in-chief Katherine Bell, now a minority owner, to operate Quartz as a private company.

The acquisition is effective immediately. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“Quartz’s mission is to make business better,” Seward said in a stateemnt. “We want Quartz to be an ally and resource to our readers in developing new and better ways of doing business. This is an exciting moment for our own business, as we become an independent media company again. I’m thrilled to be taking this step after helping to build Quartz, with so many others, over the past eight years.”

Added Bell, “In a time of great change and risk, we need ambitious and innovative business journalism more than ever. Quartz’s progressive, global perspective helps readers understand the world’s most difficult and urgent problems, like the climate crisis and racial and economic injustice, and work on solving them. I am honored to join Zach and lead Quartz into the future.”

Yusuke Umeda, CEO of Uzabase, has agreed, in a personal capacity, to provide debt financing for the new company, which will also seek outside investment.