The longer the auction for the Reed Business Information goes on, the more the reported price drops, as the economy continues to slide. The latest rumor in the British media has the offering prices heading below 1 billion pounds, against an initial valuation of at least 1.25 billion pounds. The three bidders left are Bain Capital, TPG and Strauss Zelnick. One person involved in the deal tells the FT, “Reed Elsevier won’t sell at any price but buyers can’t ignore what they are hearing and seeing in the marketplace.” Plus, “Just how much below £1bn remains to be seen.” But […]
M&A
More Cracks in Reed Sale; Children's Book Purchase Cancelled
As the hoped-for sale of Reed Business Information’s magazines limps to its third round, Reuters reports that one bank participating in the staple financing package of $1.26 billion has “backed off tentatively,” leaving a potential reduction of $200 in the loans on offer. With “only a few bidders remaining,” they are “re-examining offers amid increasing uncertainty” in credit markets.Reuters In other credit market victims, last week Learning Curve parent company RC2 announced it was canceling their planned acquisition of the children’s publishing division of Publications International. CEO Curt Stoelting said “recent shifts in the capital markets have impacted the availability […]
Borders Warrants Come Due
The WSJ reminds readers that the next phase of Borders’ loan-shark deal with Pershing Square Capital Management kicks in October 1. If the bookseller does not have a deal to sell the company–which is increasingly unlikely given the state of capital markets–then Pershing Square acquires warrants to buy another 5.15 million shares (or almost 8 percent of the company). For now those warrants are nearly worthless, since they are exercised at $7 a share, which is about the highest Borders stock has traded ever since their disclosure of liquidity pressures earlier this year. Pershing Square is already the company’s biggest […]
Bloomsbury Buys Berg
Bloomsbury has made another addition to its growing academic division with the purchase of Oxford International Publishers Limited, which operates as Berg Publishers, for 1.8 million pounds in cash, 200,000 million pounds in stock, and up to 1 million pounds in deferred compensation based performance. Focused on books and journals for the academic student market in the fields of fashion, design and culture studies, Berg had sales 1.58 million pounds in 2007. Kathryn Earle will continue to run the company.Release
Credit Crunch Ends Informa Buyout Bid
After Informa rejected a reduced bid of 1.9 billion pounds (down from an original bid of 2.2 billion pounds), the consortium of private equity groups hoping to buy out the company “has decided to withdraw its proposal.” The group, led by Providence Equity Partners, reportedly had trouble raising financing for the deal. But the group “said they reserved the right to make or participate in an offer for Informa within six months subject to certain conditions.” In today’s markets, Informa shares are trading over 20 percent below that reduced offer (the group bid 450p a share; the price is now […]
How Much Will Reed Pay You to Buy Their Magazines?
Reports continue to indicate that Reed has had to put together a financing package to cover most of the purchase price of the Reed Business Information unit in order to get someone to “buy” it. (In this case, “buy” likely means agree to make a small down payment and take the big debt package Reed is offering, with the properties as collateral.) They have had to supplement a $1.26 billion package of staple financing from a coalition of banks with another $330 million in loans from their own balance sheet in vendor financing. Which probably means that, while bids were […]