Categories: OLD Media Moves

Newhouses, owners of ACBJ, bid for Mergermarket

Josh Kosman of the New York Post reports that the Newhouse family was an unsuccesful bidder for Mergermarket, which was sold Friday by Pearson Plc for $624 million.

Kosman writes, “The Newhouse family owns the American City Business Journals chain and would have added Mergermarket to that stable.

“They attended management meetings and planned to use personal funds to pursue a bid, according to a source close to one of the bidders.

“‘They were not as quick with their due diligence’ as the PE firms, the source said.

“A Condé spokeswoman didn’t return an e-mail for comment.

“Ratings firm Fitch also made a bid, the source said.

“Mergermarket is selling for 16 times its annual pre-tax income. The group makes most of its money from selling subscriptions to Debtwire, which focuses on the junk bond market, and Mergermarket, which reports on deal strategy. The business also includes Dealreporter.”

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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.