Entrepreneur magazine for sale

Rafat Ali writes on PaidContent.org that Entrepreneur magazine has put itself up for sale and is seeking a price of about $200 million.

Ali wrote, “Though we don’t know who the bidders in the second round are, it could be some of the usual suspects like Time, Inc. (for its Fortune Money Group), Yahoo (for its Finance section), R H Donnelly (which recently bought Business.com), Dun & Bradstreet (which bought similarly focused AllBusiness) and perhaps from PE players as well. According to some sources we’ve spoken to, the valuation hopes are ‘high’, compared to the numbers on their books.

“The company was founded as a newsletter in 1973 and launched as Entrepreneur magazine in 1977. It also has a big online presence and operates book publishing unit Entrepreneur Press. Entrepreneur.com was launched in 1996, and has been popular and very profitable, according to our sources—that’s a big part of the appeal to potential buyers.

“But the company and its website have seen their fair share of controversies, including allegations of buying traffic for its website using pop-unders. Also, the parent company has been in the middle of some lawsuits and allegations about trying to appropriate the word ‘Entrepreneur’, and some lawsuits have followed, including one earlier this month. A lawsuit was filed alleging that it defrauded the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office while wrangling for control of the name ‘Entrepreneur Expo.'”

Read more here.