Over the weekend, rumors emerged that private investor ONEXIM Group, led by Mikhail Prokhorov, was buying Forbes and its residual holdings. Having worked at Forbes during the dot-com days, I was intrigued by the development, but couldn’t get any facts about this deal. So I emailed Roger McNamee, who heads up Elevation Partners and is an investor in Forbes. His intervention got me a quick response. “Forbes absolutely denies this rumor, and has no knowledge of the source,” Forbes said in an emailed statement. “Forbes Russia is also not for sale to the ONEXIM group.”
McNamee is having to release PR-blurbs right and left about Elevation partners’ currently-very-poor investments and how they’re sticking with them!
He just released another blurb about their investment in Palm as well – an investment that cost $8.50 per share and is now worth $2.05 per share.
Why would ANYONE want to buy Forbes? Have you seen their web site lately? It’s one of the worst on the web!