Year-to-date ad revenues are still off from their wretched 2001 pace, sales and cash-flow multiples continue to slide, and bulge-bracket firms are trying to horn in on magazines' midmarket M&A players. Deal totals are down, too, prompting one media banker to call it "quiet period." Not even Martha Stewart can lay claim to invincibility.
Peter Morgan [of the Daily Deal]: "Is the strategic buyer at a disadvantage right now?"
Baran Rosen [Whitestone Communications President]: "One of the ironies in doing acquisitions at large companies—say you're the head of the publishing division at Cahners and you go to Reed Elsevier for approval for acquisitions and your group is down 20% year-over-year—you don't get the internal corporate support you need to move ahead. Instead they say, "Why should we spend more money in an area that's down?" Which is kind of a blind way to look at how you spend your money on acquisitions. Then you're missing the opportunity to buy properties at a better value.
Peter Morgan: "What's your biggest concern?"
Baran Rosen: "The biggest concern would be is this is a phantom [economic] rebound or is it a real rebound? Every day we're looking for signs that it's real. As those pieces start to build up, we'll get a foundation that allows us to do better deals and bigger deals."
This is an excerpt from an article by Richard Morgan for The Daily Deal; July 9, 2002
