Listed companies are tricky. Investors can be so fickle and quick to pick holes in well-worked strategies they once eulogised. Any loss of support depresses the share price which can, ultimately, defeat a company’s strategy. Investment analysts are forever looking for the tell-tale signs that a corporate transformation may not succeed, even while the CEO…
Pocket Outdoor buys mags
Pocket Outdoor Media (POM), of Colorado, US, has acquired the Healthy Living, Outdoor and Fitness divisions of Active Interest Media (AIM) which include the magazine brands Vegetarian Times, Ski and Yoga Journal. POM has secured funding from Jazz Venture Partners, of San Francisco, which specialises in tech and neuroscience investment. Terms of the deal were…
Sony buys ‘Sex Education’
Sony Pictures Television is to buy a majority stake in Eleven, the production studio which produced the Netflix series Sex Education. The company’s independent British production portfolio already includes Left Bank Pictures, producers of The Crown. Eleven was founded in 2006 by documentary makers Jamie Campbell and Joel Wilson, and became known for Sex Education…
Chelsea buys Scottish mags
The London-based Chelsea Magazine Company, which publishes Scotland magazines operator of the Scottish Hotel Awards, is acquiring Scottish Life and The Highlander from Angus J. Ray Associates, Inc. They were previously published out of the US and have a significant North American subscriber base. Chelsea chairman Paul Dobson says: “The US continues to be an…
Grant Hill buys video producer
Great Hill Partners US private equity firm has acquired Storyblocks, a subscription-based digital media company. Storyblocks was founded in 2009 by Joel Holland, gaining $18.5m of funding since launch. The company’s focus has been on its subscription service, though it has also offered an “à la carte” marketplace for one-time purchases. It claims that, during…
M6 acquires film producer
M6, the French TV network, has acquired Epithète Films, a film production company based in Paris. Epithète was founded in 1985 and has developed a catalogue of 25 titles, including the Belle and Sébastian family series. M6 has over 1,300 films. M6
Now for Reed + Informa?
It is painfully ironic that exhibitions – the one sector which has enjoyed consistent growth throughout the 15 years when all other traditional media have been shredded by Google and Facebook – should now be the most affected by Covid. Even as the medical emergency abates, trade shows may face the prolonged impact of restrictions…
MediaFutures goes TransAtlantic
We’re in the news. Flashes & Flames has teamed up with the UK’s Wessenden Marketing consultancy and Folio, in the US, to launch MediaFutures International 2020. The survey of media company attitudes, opinions and forecasts builds on the 10-year-old benchmarking study conducted by Wessenden among hundreds of magazine, newspaper, digital and events companies in the…
Swedish stake in Pearson
Swedish “active” investor Cevian Capital has taken a 5.4% stake in UK-based education publisher Pearson Plc. The stake gives it a board seat and potential influence over the recruitment, currently underway, of the company’s next CEO, in succession to John Fallon who has been at the helm since 2013. Pearson was founded as a construction…
Lagardère Studios sold
Mediawan, of Paris, has bought Lagardère Studios for approximately €100m. Mediawan was established with backers MACSF, of France, and KKR, of the US, to acquire media assets across Europe. It controls EuropaCorp’s TV interests and French production companies AB Groupe, Mekever and Mon Voisin. It is adding the German TV assets of Leonine (itself formed…
