Primedia Selling all their Pro-gun Magazines (10/12/2001)

Josey1

PRIMEDIA CEO Tom Rogers apparently has a new aversion to shooting. The company is preparing to put the "for sale" sign on seven magazines: Guns & Ammo, Shooting Times, Shot Gun News, Hand Guns Magazine, Rifle Shooter, Photographic Magazine and Shutterbug. The group is believed to have revenue of $80 million a year and a profit in the $15 million a year range. Allen & Co. is said to be preparing the black books of key financial information. The price tag is expected to be more than $150 million, and bidding could be spirited. Potential bidders could include the Boston-based Navis group, which has teamed up with former Petersen Publishing executive Neil Vitale; former Primedia chief Bill Reilly, who has teamed up with the Texas Pacific Group, and American Media, which is backed by Evercore Capital Partners. Even former Petersen Publishng founder Robert Petersen might be tempted to come back in a major way to retake control of some of the magazines he founded and once owned. As part of the deal to gobble up Emap's USA holdings, Primedia's Rogers promised Wall Street in July that he would pare $250 million of "non-core assets" from the company's portfolio. The Post broke the story on Tuesday that Rogers is close to hatching a deal to sell the public relations directory and newspaper clipping service known as Bacon's to Swedish-based Observer Group for around $125 million. That company already owns Romeike, the British equivalent of Bacon's, and recently leaped the Atlantic to snap up Bowden's, which is a Canada-based clipping and public relations directory service. http://www.nypost.com/business/31615.htm