Atlantic Media in talks to sell Quartz

Atlantic Media has held talks with a number of potential buyers interested in digital media about a sale of or potential investment in Quartz, the publishing group’s business news site, writes James Fontanella-Khan and Shannon Bond of the Financial Times.

Fontanella-Khan and Bond write, “It has met with at least one interested party this month, one of the people said. In recent years Atlantic Media has received several approaches from would-be buyers.

“An Atlantic Media spokeswoman said: ‘With Quartz’s tremendous growth trajectory over the last three years, it shouldn’t be surprising that there’s investment interest. Given our ambitions for Quartz, we would be remiss in not evaluating opportunities as they arise.’

“A sale is not certain, but the talks over the publication come as valuations of successful digital media outlets are hitting fresh highs.’

“Axel Springer, the German publisher, paid $343m this year for control of Business Insider, valuing the financial news site at $390m, or nine times its expected 2015 revenues. Walt Disney recently doubled its stake in Vice Media at a valuation of more than $4bn. Vox Media and BuzzFeed were valued at more than $1bn following investments this year from Comcast’s NBCUniversal.”

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