Just when you thought the days of print media were beginning to fade, well, us forward thinking at least, classic media lands a billion dollar deal and you realize that every medium has a home. And, while the big buzz is concentrated on the ginormous sea of internet technology (google, youtube, etc.) and their recent financial endeavors and achievements, there are even bigger deals landing hard and fast right on dry land...
"Biggest Consumer Deal of the Year"
Reader's digest sells for $1.61 billion dollars to an investor group within a private equity firm Ripplewood Holdings LLC. Reader's Digest was not for sale, but the group just worked out and this might prove a new direction for the already multi-faceted Reader's Digest which movesReader’s Digest, publisher of Reader’s Digest magazine and Everyday with Rachel Ray to a privately owned company.
This transaction might prove to help mold the company into a major player on and off the internet. According to Reed Phillips, managing partner of media investment banks, DeSilva & Phillips:
“It’s a good thing for a company like the digest because we’re going through this transformation with the Internet and you can go through it better as a privately owned company,” he said. “When you’re publicly owned, you have to have stable earnings from one quarter to the next. That can be hard when you’re trying to transform a business, which is what we’re seeing now with a company like Time Inc.”
Check out the article: Reader's Digest Agrees to be Sold in Biggest Consumer Deal of the YearOk, but we're not done. I have another transaction I would you to drool over.
Clear Channel Communications annouced Nov. 16 that it had agreed to sell to a private investor group at around $26.7 billion, including the repayment of their $8 billion debt.
"The media and entertainment company said the group, led by Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. and Bain Capital Partners, LLC, has agreed to pay Clear Channel shareholders $37.60 per share."
Clear Channel also announced on Nov. 16 that it's trying to sell 448 radio stations in selected small markets as well as its television broadcasting division.
Is this going to be the start of chain reactions, where investor groups purchase these well aged media companies, break them apart, and sell off their smaller little pieces? What's going on in the minds of those devious little investors?
Clear Channel isn't exactly what I would call "Old Media" in the same sense that I refer to the print industry. But, it is old as in aged, and it is not competing the internet market the way that I presume "new" media groups do.
Check out the original article: Clear Channel: New Money Flocks to Old Media
NOTE: Both of these "old media" companies are being bought out by private investor companies. Any theory there? Any other similar stories?
