Forbes may have hard time finding buyer at $400 million

Forbes magazine may not be able to find someone willing to pay the asking price of $400 million for the company, reports Keith Kelly of the New York Post.

Kelly writes, “If it gets sold, the best guess is that it will go to a wealthy overseas buyer, attracted by the magazine with the motto ‘The Capitalist Tool,’ or a wealthy vanity player along the lines of Jeff Bezos, who bought the Washington Post for $250 million, and John Henry, the new owner of the Boston Globe.

“‘It’s a better brand than it is a business,’ said one investment adviser, who has not looked at the books being sent around by Deutsche Bank.

“Forbes’ reputation in Asia, where it has seven licensees, is probably stronger than it is in the US.

“But that may not be enough.

“I do think $400 million is the very top limit and suggests an unrealistic multiple,’ said Stewart Pinkerton, a one-time managing editor at Forbes who left in 2009 and went on to write ‘The Fall of the House of Forbes’ in 2011.”

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