The battle between Forbes and its new owners

Robert Frank writes for the New York Times about the battle between the Forbes family and the investors it sold the media company to 2014.

Frank writes, “The fight over a mere five figures has since exploded into an all-out war over the future of Forbes Media and the reputations of the Forbes family as well as the Asian tycoons who bought the company for $415 million. In a strange twist, the buyer and seller of Forbes magazine, famous for listing the world’s wealthiest people, have accused each other of being short on cash.

“The Forbes family says that because of the missed interest payment, a loan of $65 million it made to the buyers is now in default. It wants the entire amount of the loan, as well as $35 million that was set aside in case of any breaches of the sales contract, bringing the total claim to over $100 million. If the family doesn’t get paid, it says, it will liquidate Forbes Media’s new parent company, which could force another sale of Forbes Media.

“Both sides say the dispute hasn’t affected the daily operations of Forbes Media, which showed a revenue increase of 15 percent last year over the previous year. But some employees say it’s another potential distraction less than two years after the company was sold.

“Forbes’s new owners, operating under a company called Integrated Whale Media Investments, say the lawsuit is without merit and that the Forbes family breached the sales contract by failing to disclose costly legal claims against the company.”

Read more here.