The pace of newsletter and specialized-information acquisitions in the second quarter of 2003 was about the same as the same period last year—six deals this year compared with four last year—according to the merger and acquisitions firm Whitestone Communications, which tracks M&As for its annual reference book, Who’s Buying Whom.
Whitestone Communications associate Jenifer Lindenman noted, “We believe that the acquisition pace is being held back due to a lack of sellers. We have spoken with a number of publishers who might normally be considering a sale but their results have not recovered sufficiently from the recent recession to allow them to get a price for their businesses that they believe they deserve. Meanwhile, we have a lot of buyers eager to buy good subscription-based properties.”
The dollar value of deals got a boost from one transaction, the acquisition of Thompson Publishing by James Finkelstein (NL/NL 5/16/04). Whitestone estimates the quarter’s total value was $60 million versus last year’s second quarter estimate of $11 million.
“Finkelstein deserves an award for persistence,” Lindenman said. “Thompson had been put up for sale about a year ago but then taken off the market when the owner, Richard Thompson, did not get his price. Clearly, Finkelstein did not take ‘no’ for an answer and kept after Richard to get the deal done while other bidders had left the scene.”
In other sizable deals of the second quarter, Commonwealth Business Media, owner of a number of transportation directories as well as the Journal of Commerce, acquired a large group of directories from Compass North America, including Seaports of the Americas AAPA, Seaports Magazine, Georgia Ports Authority Guide & Directory, and The Port Everglades Guide & Directory.
This article is reprinted with permission from The Newsletter on Newsletters.
Copyright July 22 2004. www.newsletterbiz.com
