TMG acquires BDFM 100%

TIMES Media Group (TMG) has reached an agreement with Pearson Overseas Holdings to acquire Pearson’s 50% shareholding in BDFM Publishers‚ the company announced yesterday.

The deal was struck through its subsidiary, Avusa Publishing Proprietary Limited. Following the implementation of the acquisition‚ Avusa Publishing will be BDFM’s sole shareholder.

Business Day reported yesterday that TMG‚ which owns the Sunday Times and is part-owner of Business Day and Financial Mail publisher BDFM‚ had been making moves to buy out the stake from Pearson in a deal called “Project Springbok”.

The deal puts Business Day‚ the Financial Mail and the African Broadcasting Channel‚ which owns Summit Television‚ 100% under the control of TMG.

TMG said yesterday the entire news industry was undergoing fundamental structural change.

Last month‚ TMG said in results for the year to December that BDFM had continued to struggle‚ with Business Day having recently lost a large source of revenue as a result of changes to JSE rules governing financial notices.

But the BDlive website had proved a winner‚ with 507 000 unique browsers each month.

The full acquisition of BDFM by TMG will allow for economies of scale‚ an integrated operations platform and operational synergies‚ and will permit BDFM‚ under unified ownership‚ to accelerate its digital transformation.