Forbes talking about going public at $650 million valuation

Forbes Media LLC is discussing going public through a merger with Magnum Opus Acquisition Ltd., a blank-check firm, according to people with knowledge with the matter, reports Gillian Tan of Bloomberg News.

Tan reports, “Forbes is set to be valued at more than $650 million in a deal with the Hong Kong-based special purpose acquisition company, the people said. A deal with Magnum Opus, if reached, would scuttle Forbes’s earlier talks with a consortium led by Michael Moe’s GSV Asset Management, one of the people said. That transaction, which would have seen the business-news publisher remain private, was slated to value it at more than $600 million, Bloomberg News reported in May.

“Bill Hankes, a spokesman for Forbes, declined to comment. Representatives for Magnum Opus and GSV declined to comment.

“In 2014, Hong Kong-based Integrated Whale Media Investments, led by Tak Cheung ‘TC’ Yam, acquired a majority stake in Forbes in a deal that valued the company at $475 million. Forbes’s founding family retained a minority stake following that transaction, it said at the time.”

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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.