Amid an orgy of IPO’s and acquisitions that is so 1999esque it’s scary, the latest rumor/ report takes us into incestuous territory with a claim that Comcast Corp. is looking to acquire Vox Media, Inc.

According to Quartz, talks have occurred between the pair, but the sticking point so far has been the price of acquisition, with Vox wanting to exit on a Unicorn valuation of $1 billion, more than just a touch more than Comcast is willing to pay for the blog network.

The incestuous side comes via who owns what, where and when, following Vox’s acquisition of Re/Code Tuesday.

Comcast, through its venture arm Comcast Ventures, is a major investor in Vox, although how much isn’t clear. The company led Vox’s $7 million Series B round when it was still called  SportsBlogs, Inc.

It subsequently participated in a $10.5 million Series C round before being only one of two companies to participate in the $34 million Series D round.

The now owned by Vox tech blogging site Re/Code included among its major investors NBCUniversal News Group….which is fully owned by Comcast.

The story goes, at least according to Quartz’s Zachary M. Seward, that Comcast played a role in encouraging Vox to acquire Re/Code so it would be easier for Comcast to acquire Vox at a higher valuation.

Sadly the Illuminati wasn’t mentioned in the report.

While such conspiracy conspires to deliver a result arguement will be laughingly joked about, Seward isn’t the only one reporting Comcast is definitely interested in a Vox acquisition, so there’s probably some truth to it.

Did this influence the Re/Code buy?

It has been said, not only by us, that the likely sale of Re/Code was due to financial distress at the company, and the fact that it was an all-share buy would indicate further that this is the case.

But what if the all-share deal was sweetened by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher knowing there was a good chance they’d get an all cash buyout, probably at premium, within the next 3, 6 or 9 months due to a Comcast acquisition of Vox?

If anyone in the Valley would have had a heads up on a Comcast acquisition of Vox it would have been Swisher, who is regarded by some to be the best tech journalist in the business.

It’s more conspiracy level stuff admittedly, but it would make the deal make a lot more sense.

We’ve asked Swisher for comment and she hadn’t replied at the time of writing. We’ll update the post if she does.

Image credit: stevendepolo/Flickr/CC by 2.0