Penton’s Up For Sale; Hires Banker

The B2B media firm Penton Media, taking advantage of the uptick in the B2B media M&A, has put itself up for sale. It has hired Credit Suisse Securities and Allen & Company to help in the process of exploring strategic options, including sale.
The official reasoning given on the move: said CEO David Nussbaum: “it is an opportune time to evaluate strategic alternatives was based on a number of factors, including that management has successfully improved operating income since the industry recession in early 2001 and the board’s belief that the market is currently very attractive for business-to-business media assets.” The company is among the oldest in existence: it was founded in 1892 by Canadian immigrant John Augustus Penton.
Even though it is a public company traded on the OTC board, it is majority owned by PE firm Abry Partners, which also own Cygnus (which also went on sale recently)
Even though the print side of the company remains a tough-go, on the online side the company’s revenues have been doing well. In Q1, it reported $5.1 million in online revenue, an increase of $1 million over the same period last year, while on the publications side, the company reported $31.8 million, an $878,000 decrease. The company has also struggled under heavy debt…as of March 31, the company’s outstanding debt was about $317.3 million.
Related: Penton’s Progress

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