The ongoing auction for agency IMG has culled the initial field of 20 or more potential bidders down to ten candidates, in a sale expected to garner $2 billion or more. The NY Post reported that still active bidders include CAA (backed by TPG) and William Morris Endeavor (backed by Silver Lake), as well as private equity firms KKR and New Mountain Capital; Bain; CVC Capital in partnership with The Chernin Group as well as the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Bahrain’s Mumtalakat; and Carlyle Group. Lagardere is among those no longer in contention, though former ICM owner Rizvi Traverse […]
Finance
Apollo Said to be Looking to Sell McGraw Hill Professional
Having acquired McGraw-Hill Education in March for just over $2.5 million, Apollo Global Management is reportedly looking to sell off some of the parts less related to core higher ed and K-12 markets. The WSJ reports they are shopping “the professional business,” though it’s not clear if the reporters understand McGraw-Hill’s business portfolio. The story describes the assets for sale as including “a medical information business called AccessMedicine, as well as a reference title business and trade publishing arm.” The company has an actual division called McGraw-Hill Professional that comprises their professional and trade book titles — with components focused […]
Corporate: Luebbe’s IPO; Penguin Random Buys Out Penguin’s Partner In India
Germany’s Bastei Luebbe completed an IPO on the Frankfurt stock exchange — though the company wound up raising only about half of what they hoped to garner in “a challenging market environment.” When the plan was announced in September, they aspired to sell 5.3 million shares at up to 11 euros a share (for proceeds of 58 million euros). In the end, they were able to place 4 million shares, at a lower price of 7.5 euros a share. The proceeds of 30 million euros will be used for digitization and content acquisition. Shares will begin trading on October 8. […]
UK Cutbacks
UK publisher Haynes is restructuring in the face of declining results and a changing market. The company will move from its current headquarters in Somerset to “more suitably sized premises” and is exiting the distribution market. CEO Eric Oakley said, “The book distribution market has changed significantly. The investment that would be needed to upgrade the UK facility for the requirements of a modern day logistics operation would far outweigh the future benefit to the business.” What the company calls a “relatively small number of roles” will be eliminated as part of the moe. The company reported annual sales of […]
Moonves Likes S&S Under His Dome
CBS ceo Les Moonves spoke to investors at yesterday’s Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media, Communications and Entertainment Conference. The focus of his reported remarks was to underscore that their standoff with Time Warner Cable would have no effect on their earnings. But Moonves did also specifically say what his publisher has told us in the past: “We have no intention of selling Simon & Schuster.” (Yes, we know publishing word parsers will focus on “intention.”) The publisher’s relationships helped contribute to the parent company’s overall success this summer with the special Under the Dome series on CBS, based on […]
Barnes & Noble Postpones International Rollout Again
Barnes & Noble’s promised international expansion of Nook stores has been quietly postponed again. The last time the company delayed their timeline was in late July, in their delayed annual SEC report, which stated, “the company now expects expansion into these 10 markets to be accomplished by the end of 2013.” Now their new SEC report for the first quarter of fiscal 2014 pushes that target forward another 4 months, saying “it now expects expansion into these 10 markets to be accomplished by the end of fiscal 2014.” As a result of the continued delays, they may face a financial penalty […]