The prestigious Forbes magazine, well-known for its famous lists of the world’s richest people and its trend-setting business articles, has had a busy few months putting the finishing touches on its sale and IPO plans on the New York Stock Exchange. The process, however, has not been entirely smooth and has encountered some bumps along the way. At this point, it is still unclear which company will end up purchasing a significant percentage of the magazine’s ownership, though the issue should be settled by the first quarter of 2022 at the latest.
The challenger. Just a few days ago a new actor burst in upon Forbes’ plans, whose path to a listing on Wall Street had to that point appeared set in stone. In August 2021 Forbes Global Media Holdings had announced a merger with Magnus Opus Acquisition Limited, using a special company acquisition formula, better known as SPAC, and the deal seemed to be going smoothly. At that point no one had expected that a new interested party would be jumping into the ring. The challenger is GSV Ventures, a venture capital firm, that last December rocked the boat with an “offer to acquire the company for US$ 620 million,” according to Axios.
Digital reinvention. The key point of this operation is that the magazine expects to raise US$145 million of liquidity to inject into its digital transformation plans. Following the lead of other media outlets such as The New York Times, which have had to reinvent themselves to adapt to the times, Forbes wants to take its place as a cutting edge digital age media outlet. The idea is to “convert readers into engaged long-term users, with recurring memberships and subscriptions for premium content and highly segmented product offerings,” reads the statement issued by Forbes when negotiations began.
How things stand. With this move, current Forbes shareholders would keep 22% of the company. In addition, they will retain the brand, and the project will be led by the team currently running the magazine. At the same time, CEO Mike Federle will remain at the helm on the editorial side, which has recently beefed-up the Forbes One platform and is betting big on newsletters, a product that has been highly prized by the reading audience.
A bit of history Forbes has been in business for 104 years and currently reaches an estimated 150 million readers through 45 local editions in 76 countries. Integrated Whale Media, a Chinese investment group, has held a 51% ownership stake in the company since 2013. All that remains now is to wait to see which of the two companies emerges victorious while keeping an eye on the digitalization plan backed by millions of dollars from the sale.
