After a vague and weak denial last month when travel site Skift first reported the deal in progress, the BBC has now confirmed its sale of Lonely Planet to little-known billionaire Brad Kelley’s NC2 media. Selling for £51.5 million ($77.3 million), the sale is now raising the expected criticism in the UK as the British public confronts the full fiasco of the broadcaster’s diversion into travel publishing. The BBC already took £50 million in writedowns on the total £130 million purchase price for Lonely Planet, and the sale is an admission that even those writedowns were not sufficient to account […]
Finance
Plans Resume for IPO or Sale of Springer Science, But Bertelsmann No Longer Interested
The long, slow process of finding something to do with Springer Science continues, as the company’s private equity owner EQT restarts plans to sell or launch an IPO that they hope would value the academic publisher at as much as 4 billion euros, Bloomberg reports. EQT, according to the ever-reliable “people familiar with the matter” will “send documents to interested groups this month and potential buyers have received non-disclosure agreements.” Bertelsmann, which had expressed some interest in buying Springer last fall, now says in an email statement they won’t pursue the company after all. “For Bertelsmann, the area of business […]
Australia Approves Penguin Random House Merger
The Penguin Random House merger cleared another regulatory hurdle Friday morning as Australia’s Competition and Consumer Commission will approve the deal, the two publishing houses announced Friday. “Bertelsmann and Pearson welcome this ruling as an important step on the path towards completing the planned transaction,” the companies said in a joint statement, adding they “are confident of receiving [the] approvals” from other international antitrust regulatory bodies “over the course of the year.” New Zealand’s Competition Commission, which was also expected to arrive at a decision by the end of this week, has postponed the date to April 5. And as […]
Apollo Lines Up Financing for McGraw-Hill Education Purchase; Will Pay More Cash
The sale of McGraw-Hill’s education unit to Apollo Global Management is expected to close before the end of the month now that the private equity firm has lined up financing for the acquisition. With that financing comes a slight revision of terms in which McGraw-Hill will receive more cash upon closing than planned, in exchange for what looks like a slight reduction of the selling price. The original agreement called for a price of approximately $2.5 billion, but that deal included McGraw-Hill providing $250 million of financing in the form of senior unsecured notes. But now McGraw-Hill says they will receive […]
BBC May Have Buyer for Lonely Planet
Rafat Ali’s travel site Skift reported Monday that wealthy Kentuckian Brad Kelley “is in final stages of negotiation” with the BBC to “buy a majority controlling stake in Lonely Planet.” The story says the BBC would retain “a small-but-sizable stake to help maintain editorial control through current management, as well as save on inter-country taxes.” Veering further into speculation, the piece suggests that Kelley–who made his money from cigarettes, and then became a significant land-owner and conservationist–might pay “close to $100 million” for that unspecified share of the publisher. The BBC replied to the story with a statement that is […]
Briefs: Macmillan Library Lending Begins; Scottish Publisher Mainstream To Stop Publishing New Books
As previously announced, Macmillan officially began lending digital books to libraries Friday with 1200 backlist Minotaur Books titles under a pilot program. Macmillan ebooks will be available in the one copy/one user lending model for the earlier of two years or 52 checkouts for $25 each. Scottish publisher Mainstream will cease publishing new titles by the end of 2013 after more than 35 years in business. Titles already under contract and scheduled for publication will proceed as usual through March 2014, with backlist titles to be reissued under a Random House UK-based imprint. The company’s Edinburgh offices will close on […]