F+W Buyer Sues Previous Owners Even financially naive book publishing people took note when Providence Equity Partners sold F+W Publications to another private equity group, Abry Partners $500 million earlier this year, garnering more of a magazine sales multiple (estimated at two times sales) for the company than a book publishing multiple. Now Abry is suing Providence in a Delaware court, the Boston Globe reports, alleging “F&W artificially inflated its revenue for the six-month period ended June 30, 2005” by “channel stuffing” (incentivizing retailers to buy excess returnable inventory) so that “it overpaid for the company. Abry wants to rescind […]
