Bamboo curtain set to fall on Forbes empire
THEY may be brushing up on Mandarin inside the Forbes Media empire.
Chinabased Fosun International is now said to be in final negotiations to land Forbes and its related digital properties.
One source said the deal could be announced as early as this week — or early next week.
Fosun is a diversified, closelyheld conglomerate that last year purchased 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza for $725 million and already publishes the Chinese edition of the magazine.
A report last week, in The Deal, had Fosun as the winner already. It quoted sources saying the price tag will be in the $250 million range — far below the $400 million that Deutsche Bank, which is handling the sale, said in November it hoped to fetch.
As Media Ink first reported, Steve Forbes may be staying on board with a minority stake.
Speculation is that Forbes will keep up to 20 percent.
Not clear is if Steve Forbes will buy out his three brothers, Timothy, Christopher and Robert, and sister Moira, plus their extended family partners — or if the Forbes family as a bloc would keep a stake.
Some are speculating that Steve Forbes will get a privateequity backer to front the money so he can buy out the relatives.
That may be the only way the family members will get any return, because their current partner in Forbes Media, Elevation Partners, hold preferred shares and would get paid first.
Elevation, headed by Roger McNamee, also counts Irish rocker Bono, of U2, as an investor.
It paid about $264 million for a 40 percent stake in the company way back in 2007.
With the price tag in the $250 million range, it would mean a Steve buyout of his siblings and other family members would be the only money realized by the Scottish clan.
Out of Time
Fran Hauser, one of the top digital people at Time Inc., is exiting.
The wellrespected executive had been president of digital for the old Entertainment & Style Group that included People and In Style, as well the Lifestyle Group that included titles Cooking Light, Sunset and Health.
The rumor that she would exit has been circulating ever since CEO Joe Ripp passed her over for the top chief technology officer job that went to Colin Bodell.
Hauser’s departure means virtually the entire upper echelon of executives connected to the top moneymaking People group have exited the company recently.
That includes Time Inc. EditorinChief Martha Nelson, who had run People and In Style, People top editor Larry Hackett and People’s top digital person, Mark Golin.
David Geithner, the executive vice president in charge of the sincedisbanded Entertainment & Style Group, was also among those let go when the company recently consolidated into two operating groups from three.
Hauser finally confirmed her departure on her Facebook page on Monday.
“It is with both excitement and sadness that after 15 years with Time Warner (and 10 withh Time Inc.), I’m leaving the company. I’m so grateful to all of my amazing colleagues for their friendship, support and mentorship through the years. Looking forward to sharing my next chapter with all of you!”
Luxury landings
Modern Luxury, the regional magazine publisher, has landed two veteran publishers to bolster its national sales team.
Marcy Bloom, who headed to Ghana to work with orphans after her job as publisher of Lucky magazine ended a year ago, has landed as a senior vice president and group publisher at Modern Luxury.
Michael Wolfe, a veteran pub lisher of Men’s Journal at Wenner Media, and who was most recently publisher of The Week and the digital site Mental Floss, is also joining Modern Luxury as publisher.
Wolfe will be charged with overseeing national sales for the sprawling network of 40 luxury magazines. Bloom will be the top national sales and marketing executive at the company that is headed by CEO Michael Dickey.
The Dickey family is also behind radio network Cumulus Media, although the privately held publisher and the publicly traded radio company operate independently.
Modern Luxury battles Niche Media, owned by the feuding Greenspun family in Las Vegas, for dominance in the regional magazine market.
Niche recently launched Austin magazine, and Modern luxury recently acquired Scottsdale.
Last year Modern Luxury launched Beach to square off against one of Niche’s flagships titles, Hamptons Magazine.