Cheezburger founder and CEO Ben Huh says acquisition talks started in January, and the deal closed last Monday.
Tubefilter News is reporting that Know Your Meme cost Huh and Co. seven figures, but Huh wouldn't confirm this with Mashable.
Know Your Meme, a spinoff of Rocketboom founded in 2008, is a site dedicated to researching and documenting viral culture. Users can submit memes for consideration, and then the staff decides which ones are valid enough to research and document.
"We see ourselves as an entertainment destination," Huh says of the acquisition. "It helps to build a context and know your origins. ... So much of Internet culture is new, and we thought it would be good if people could know the history of that culture."
According to Huh, the staff will remain in place, which means that the Cheezburger Network will now have a New York City base as well as a Seattle office. Huh also plans to expand the staff and cover more content, a formula he has also applied to acquisitions like The Daily What and Sketchy Santas.