Posted on 08/09/2012 7:12:18 AM PDT by abb
The New York Times Company, which has been shedding assets and focusing on its core newspaper and Web site, is preparing to sell another of its properties.
The company has a letter of intent to sell the About Group, the unit that includes the About.com online resource guide, to Answers.com, a question-and-answer site, for $270 million, a person familiar with the deal said on Wednesday. It is not clear when the deal will close because financing has not yet been secured.
When the Times Company originally purchased About.com in 2005 for just over $400 million, analysts questioned how compatible About.com was with the broader company goals. But in its first few years as part of the Times Company, the About Group - which includes ConsumerSearch.com, CalorieCount.com and About China - produced profits that helped bolster the company's overall financial picture. While the company's newspaper business struggled to make the transition to digital, About brought in profits of $51 million in 2009 and $62 million in 2010
The group's profits shrank in 2011 to $41 million when a change in a Google algorithm affected online traffic, and its display and click advertising declined. Last month, in its quarterly earnings report, the company said that About Group's revenue declined 8.7 percent, to $25.4 million, and that it was taking a $194.7 million write-down of About.com.
snip
(Excerpt) Read more at mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com ...
ping
Now I know why I never really cared much for about.com
http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-19535-stop_the_presses.html
Stop the Presses - The Oregonian may not be a daily newspaper much longer
http://blogs.phillymag.com/the_philly_post/2012/08/08/28-million-cuts-proposed-philadelphia-inquirer-daily-news/
$28 Million In Cuts Proposed at Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News
http://www.foliomag.com/2012/abc-bumpy-first-half-consumer-magazine-circ-newsstand
ABC: Bumpy First Half For Consumer Magazine Circ, Newsstand
Agreed. Talk about over-promise and under-deliver. Half the time, they offer you a link to the question you just asked, and no answer, thanks very much. When there are answers, the "experts" are often shallow, ignorant, and rather PC.
As you say, now I know why.
The New York Times Company, which has been shedding assets and focusing on its core newspaper propaganda and Web site, is preparing to sell another of its properties.
Fixed that typo for them. I'm sure it was unintentional...
I would get the same resut as you. Not much help at all.
I don’t think that the Answers.com site is all bad, but it’s not worth $400M. Not even in a weird fantasy world.
MAYBE it’s worth $50K.
It would be much better, however, if they cleaned it up and removed all of the weirdly placed ads and other BS. Ask a question, get an answer.
Good concept. Horrible execution.
Buying high and selling low is no way to run a business, even the NY Times...
This is actually one of the smartest deals that the Nepotistic Buffoon has done to date ... a mere pittance compared to the sums lost on the Boston Globe and the NY Times Office Building ... but then, we should remember the deal hasn't funded yet so there's still hope that the nitwit can do better.
I don’t know, sounds like they got a pretty good dividend in the interim.
Well.... it’s ABOUT TIME .
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