Why Business Insider can’t find a buyer

Michael Wolff writes Monday for USA Today about Business Insider’s prospects for selling itself.

Wolff writes, “Finding no buyers might indicate that it is the wrong time to sell. On the other hand, no buyers at the upper floor might indicate it is high time to sell at a lower one, and that $100 million in cash might be just setting the stage for a more attractive deal. Why else would Ryan be showing his hand?

“Business Insider‘s product is, or it would like it to be, financial information, a premium category based on exclusive, must-have data. Reuters blogger Felix Salmon argued the other day that it was time for a merger of various financial sites, including, potentially, Forbes and The Street, along with Business Insider — with The Street known to have a big war chest and a stable paid newsletter business. A winner-take-all consolidation.

“The problem with this scenario is that Business Insider hardly has any exclusive information.  Blodget’s game has been to hurriedly add a bit of point of view to lots of widely available business news.

“His sweet spot is among high-flying digital publishers such as The Huffington Post, Gawker and BuzzFeed, aggregators and repurposers whose true added value is publicity and traffic (the more traffic, the more publicity, and vice versa).”

Read more here.