Deals

Press Release: Exponent Private Equity (“Exponent”) today announces that it has agreed to sell Immediate Media Co (“Immediate”) to Hubert Burda Media for an undisclosed sum. Immediate is the UK’s leading and fastest-growing special interest content and platform company. It is home to some of the UK’s best-loved brands – including the Radio Times, the most valuable and profitable magazine brand in the UK. Immediate engages over 19 million passionate consumers each month, offering them world-class content and innovative new products and services, including e-commerce and TV shopping.

David Montgomery, a former CEO of Trinity Mirror and editor of the News of the World has emerged as the potential buyer of the Express and Star newspapers, in a complicated deal with their current owner Richard Desmond that could also see Trinity Mirror take a minority stake

Daily Express owner Northern & Shell is in discussions with rival newspaper group Trinity Mirror about the potential sale of a minority stake in its newspapers and a deal to share back-office operations.

Press Release: Future plc (LSE: FUTR, “the Group” or “Future”), the international media group and leading digital business, has acquired the magazines, domain names, events, radio licence and websites of Classic Rock, Metal Hammer, Prog, Blues and the Golden Gods for £800,000 from FRP Advisory, the administrators of Team Rock Limited

Press Release:  The Financial Times announces the acquisition of GIS Planning, a San Francisco-based internet technology company providing organisations with data and intelligence on foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic development in North America.

The acquisition of GIS Planning strengthens the FT Group’s portfolio of specialist products and services. GIS Planning’s ZoomProspector Enterprise and ZoomProspector.com join a stable of successful FDI subscription services which includes fDi Magazine, fDi Markets and fDi Benchmark

Magazine publisher Square Up Media is set to acquire media company Factory Media, publishers of Dirt and Cycling Magazine UK, for an undisclosed sum

UK media group Ascential has carved off 13 magazine titles into a separate entity with a view to selling them. The so-called ‘Heritage Brands’ include Nursing Times, MEED and Drapers

ITV paid a reported £50m to lure the The Voice away from The BBC in 2015 but it was the purchase earlier in the year of Talpa Media, the Dutch production company that created The Voice, that represents the longer-term investment for the future. But as Mr Crozier enters his seventh year in charge at ITV, questions are beginning to emerge about the long-term direction of the company and Mr Crozier’s own future

Magazine group Meredith Corporation has renewed its interest in Time Inc, the publisher of People and Sports Illustrated, according to people familiar with the matter

Pageant Media yesterday announced the acquisition of information services brands (II Seaches, Foundation & Endowment Intelligence and Money Management Intelligence) which provide critical insight for asset managers who need to understand current investor activity.

Tarsus Group plc (“Tarsus” or the “Company”), the international business-to-business media group, is pleased to announce that it has conditionally agreed to acquire from the Guangdong Home Textile Association and Association Member shareholders 65% of Foshan Huaxia Home Textile Development Co., Ltd. (“Foshan Huaxia”) (the “Acquisition”). Foshan Huaxia owns the Home Furnishing Expo (Hometex), the leading bi-annual home textiles exhibition in China

Press Release: SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif. – Emerald Expositions, LLC, announced its acquisition of the American Craft Retailers Expo (“ACRE”) from IndieMe, Inc. Founded in 2006, ACRE consists of two shows that take place annually in Las Vegas, NV and Philadelphia, PA. The events connect wholesale American and Canadian makers of handmade products with national and international buyers from art and fine craft galleries, modern gift and home stores, independent retailers, guilds & arts institutions, e-retailers, national retail chains, museums and other influencers in the home, gift and lifestyle marketplace.

Allworld has plenty to recommend it. It’s focused on some of the most exciting markets in Asia, from Singapore and Malaysia to Thailand and Indonesia. But takeovers reliant on boosts to sales are much harder to pull off than those based on cost savings

Sky News has learnt that Hubert Burda, which publishes the YourHome and Wedding lifestyle magazines, is putting the finishing touches to a takeover of Immediate Media, which has been owned by Exponent Private Equity since 2011

Upper Street Events has taken on the Adventure Travel Show, three Cruise Shows and the Olympia Historic Automobile Fair, with the acquisition of Escape Events

Johnston Press confirmed it will sell its East Anglia titles to Iliffe Media Limited having previously said it was in a late-stage discussions over the sale in November.

Press Release: WPP announces that MediaCom, part of its global media investment management arm GroupM, has acquired a majority stake in Code Computer Love Ltd (“Code”), a user experience studio that creates and develops digital products, campaigns and capabilities

Press Release: WPP announces that its global e-commerce consultancy, Salmon, has acquired Netherlands-based Eperium, a leading digital and e-commerce consultancy

Swink Media, publishers of Golf Retailing, a leading magazine for the UK golf trade, has announced the acquisition of Pro Shop Europe from the Mark Allen Group (MAG) for an undisclosed sum

You may or may not have heard of Cincinnati-based Promotion Execution Partners but the marketing promotions firm employs 250 people in 20 offices in 14 countries. The agency has handled upwards of $3.5 billion in ad spend for more than 500 worldwide brands since its founding in 2004.