Categories: OLD Media Moves

Economist on the prowl for acquisitions

The EconomistÂ has the “capacity and appetite” for larger acquisitions, itsÂ CEO said Wednesday, according to a story in the Financial Times by media editor Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson.

He wrote, “The Economist is understood to have been an unsuccessful bidder for Jane’s Information Group, which was sold this week for $183.5m to IHS.Â [CEO Helen]Â Alexander would not comment on the auction but said: ‘We certainly have the capacity to buy, and the appetite.’

“The group had Â£31m of cash at the end of March, and capacity to raise ‘conservative’ debt-financing, she said. The acquisitions of European Voice and GalleryWatch in the past two years had given it ‘credibility in our ability to integrate acquisitions’, she added.

“The group would look to acquire ‘intelligent media brands’ targeted at ‘high-end’ audiences, she said. Recent bids for Reuters and Dow Jones have focused attention on valuations of premium media groups, although Ms Alexander said these were not the spur for ‘thinking big’.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.