Rumors of Ziff Davis’ Imminent Sale Persist

So says this story, something I have heard too on and off over the last year or so…Private equity firm Willis Stein & Partners, which bought the magazine assets of Ziff Davis for $780 million in cash in 1999, has reportedly contacted investment banks to seek potential bids.
The play I have heard for a while is that the three main divisions within the firm might be broken up: the games books, which have seen a brutal decline on the print side are the most troubled (the online side with 1Up.com is doing well); then the enterprise division, and the consumer/small business group. Out of those, I had heard that the enterprise might be rolled up with another tech media company (whose name I know but won’t fuel more rumors here).
An anonymous banker quoted in the story says that Willis Stein could not command anywhere near the 1999 sale price for Ziff Davis and would most likely lose “in excess of $100 million.”

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