Since 2018, quietly, Medialab has been building a mini-media empire by acquiring stale apps and websites and stuffing them full of ads.

A cquisitions include Genius, the song lyrics database, and image-sharing platform Imgur, among others that collectively boast an audience of 180 million monthly users, exchanging over 22 billion messages across its chat platforms.

However, Medialab has been involved in several lawsuits previously. Founders of Imgur, Genius, Amino, and Datpiff have sued the company for "alleged breaches of acquisition agreements." The founders of Amino claim Medialab failed to honour a $17.5 million payment, while Genius co-founder Tom Lehman claims the company refused to pay for an $80 million sale—the cases are still pending.

Medialab has already settled disputes with Imgur and Datpiff. The founder of Imgur, Alan Schaaf, resolved the claim against Medialab over an unpaid sum of $8 million in June 2023, while Datpiff won a judgment of $400,000 against Medialab in July 2021. Whistles it acquired, including Whisper, faced a class-action lawsuit that claimed the company revealed user information. Kik, among other companies, has been accused of child exploitation.

Apart from revenue challenges, the firm faced financial difficulties, such as a $110 million lawsuit with the Corbel Capital debt fund, which was settled in February. Medialab has also faced litigation from its suppliers, like Mixpanel and HTEC, for unbilled invoices.

At such a time, Medialab proved more aggressive in raising money, posting over $40 million in net profits in 2021 and raising $200 million at a valuation of $1.1 billion that same year. Rising borrowing costs are also making its aggressive growth strategy, characterized by endless legal battles and financial strains, an issue industry players like Kraft-Heinz, Remy Martin, and Starz find hard to stomach. It now questions the sustainability of Medialab's rapid expansion and debt management practices.