Forbes brothers want $44 million from new owners

Forbes Forbes The Forbes family claims that the Asian buyers of Forbes Media still owe them $44 million — even after the new owners forked over roughly $22 million they owed on a promissory note — reports Keith Kelly of the New York Post.

Kelly writes, “The dispute, which is playing out in Delaware Chancery Court, stems from a missed $46,000 interest payment that came due only weeks after the deal closed in September 2014. Most recently, Judge J. Travis Laster sided with the family and dismissed the buyers’ motion to toss the case.

“‘In terms of the motion to strike — I’ll be kind — that was just not a well-founded motion,’ the judge said in his latest ruling.

“The buyer, Integrated Whale Media, said the suit ‘is without merit and that the Forbes family, not IWM, is in breach of their obligations.’ IWM said it’s meeting its obligations ‘and will continue to do so.’

“The Forbes family walked away with less than $100 million after selling the company, founded by B.C. Forbes in 1917. Clearly, their Scottish blood is boiling over what they regard as delaying tactics by IWM, a joint venture formed by Asia-based investors Tak Cheung Yam and Sammy Wong to buy the company two years ago.”

Read more here.

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.