• Forbes, Tuesday, January 3, 2012 2:54 PM

How has Vice moved from being "basically a free magazine for the tattoo set" to a company with "more than 800 full-time employees in 34 countries producing video, books, magazines, live events and music in partnership with some of the world’s biggest companies," with worth predicted to reach $1 billion this year?

Jeff Bercovici tells the story, which includes a large debt to former Vicaom CEO Tom Freston, getting his own back with a "$1 Billon Revenge," against his former boss, Sumner Redstone, who fired him in 2007. 

"I look at Tom, who built MTV, and essentially, we’re doing the same thing, just cheaper,” is the money quote from Vice Media Ceo Shane Smith.  “I want to be the next CNN and the next ESPN and the next MTV, digitally, and I know that sounds grandiose, but when we do our Google channels and our Chinese channels, we’re going to be one of the largest networks in the world. We will get there.”

Read the whole story at Forbes »