Smart Money deal: Why?

Zac Bissonnette of DailyFinance.com wonders why News Corp. feels the need now to acquire the 50 percent of personal finance magazine Smart Money that it doesn’t already own.

Bissonnette writes, “No major layoffs on the editorial side would result from the deal, but the question you have to wonder about is this: How much could SmartMoney possibly be worth?

“Bloomberg recently acquired all of BusinessWeek for less than $5 million, and that deal presented an opportunity for considerable synergy. BusinessWeek is also, dare I say it, a brand with a richer history and greater influence and critical respect.

“And circulation: According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, BusinessWeek reaches 917,568 readers. SmartMoney circulation? Just 800,000.

“It’s hard to see the deal being material either in immediate costs or in long-term impact. It may just be that the deal is worth doing because the complexities of a joint venture are not justified by the magazine’s relatively low value.”

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