So this has been the worst kept secret in the trade media world: Ziff Davis has been trying to sell itself…rather its owner, private equity firm Willis Stein & Partners, which bought the magazine assets of Ziff Davis for $780 million in cash in 1999, has retained Evercore Partners and Lehman Brothers as its bankers for a possible sale, in full or in parts.
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.
DealBook: Willis Stein is not expected to recoup anywhere near what it invested in Ziff Davis. But a sale would allow to exit what what has been a nettlesome investment. Ziff Davis has lost money in each of the past four years, regulatory filings show, and carries a large amount of debt.
Meanwhile, the company also announced its Q2 results today: Revenues for the company came in at $45.2 million, almost flat form last year. The company’s online revenues for the period increased by 49%, while print revenues declined 12% during the same time period. EBITDA (they don’t report GAAP earnings) grew 84.7 percent to $5.7 million in Q2, up from $3.1 million for the same period last year.
Related: Rumors of Ziff Davis’ Imminent Sale Persist
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