German digital publishing house Axel Springer SA has acquired an 88 percent stake in New York-based American publisher Business Insider, Inc. on a $442 million valuation.

A previous investor in Business Insider as of their last round of $25 million back in January, Axel Springer said in a statement that the near full acquisition was a vital part of Axel Springer’s strategy to broaden its global reach, diversify its English-language offerings and expand its commitment to innovative digital journalism.

Founded in 2007 by former Wall Street trader Henry Blodget originally under the name of Silicon Alley Insider (a reference to the tech companies of New York), Business Insider has grown to be one of the bigger tech come general news sites online, doing a very healthy 76 million unique visitors a month.

As Bloomberg Business notes (they broke the story prior to official confirmation) Business Insider has seven additional editions outside the United States, including editions in the U.K, Singapore and Australia (the latter under license to the fully Fairfax Ltd. owner Allure Media), and in July went back to their original roots and introduced a new tech-focused standalone website called Tech Insider.

Under the deal Founder and Chief Executive Officer Blodget will continue to run the site, along with current Chief Operating Officer and President Julie Hansen; notably both retain shares in the company through an “extensive, long-term equity incentive.”

“With the acquisition of Business Insider, we continue with our strategy to expand Axel Springer’s digital reach and, as previously announced, invest in digital journalism companies in English-speaking regions of the world,” Axel Springer Chief Executive Officer Mathias Döpfner said in a statement. “Business Insider has set new standards in digital business journalism globally….combining our forces will allow us to unlock growth potential and expand Business Insider’s portfolio to new verticals, new locations and new digital content.”

Interesting times

Axel Springer’s acquisition comes at a difficult time for companies that were once regarded as strictly tech blogging, particularly given the collapse of GigaOm, Inc. back in March.

The more successful sites have gone wide, in particular Mashable, Inc. that has left its roots as a credible tech blog and site of note and instead today posts vagina bleaching stories in a race to the bottom against the likes of Buzzfeed, Inc.; Business Insider to its credit didn’t follow the path to the bottom quite as badly, but did certainly diversify what it writes about, complete with one picture a page photo essays that take 20 clicks to complete.

That said, for a guy like Blodget who was once on the ass of his feet following his previous career as an investor, it’s an awesome result, and all credit it due.

Prior to near full acquisition Business Insider had raised $55.6 million over 7 rounds from investors including as mentioned Axel Springer, along with Gordon Crovitz, Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), Jeff Bezos, RRE Ventures, Allen & Company, Gordon Crovitz, Ken Lerer, Marc Andreessen, and others.

No date was given for the finalization of the transaction other than to note that it was ” subject to approval by relevant antitrust authorities.”

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