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#Forbes scraps plan to go public via SPAC merger

“Forbes scraps plan to go public via SPAC merger”

Forbes Global Media, the publisher of Forbes magazine, said it’s doing an about-face on its plans to go public through a merger with a blank-check acquisition firm.

The deal, which was announced in August, would have taken the 104-year-old magazine and digital publisher public at a $630 million valuation via a merger with special purpose acquisition company Magnum Opus Acquisition.

Forbes CEO Mike Federle did not give a specific reason why his company pulled the plug when he delivered the news on Wednesday.

“The Forbes brand is a sought-after and trusted brand with more than 100 years of equity that is synonymous with success and validation,” he said, touting the company’s “digital transformation” and double-digit revenue and earnings growth over the year.

In recent months, the SPAC market has cooled substantially as financial regulators have put these transactions under a microscope. A number of companies that went public via blank-check firms saw their shares plummet as a result.

The face of Donald Trump, U.S. president elect, sits on the cover of Forbes magazine, published by Forbes Media LLC, among other media publications for sale at a newsstand in Kursky railway station in Moscow, Russia, on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016. The ruble dropped as Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential race, driving down crude prices on concern his protectionist policies will sap global growth.
Forbes’ SPAC plans have been on shaky ground, according to reports.
Bloomberg via Getty Images

Forbes was one of several media companies that jumped on the SPAC wagon to help fuel growth, but few of them actually went public. Digital media giant Buzzfeed was able to go public via a SPAC, but its stock has gotten pummeled, dipping from its opening price of $10.99 a share on December 6 to below $4 in the last month.

Meanwhile, digital rivals Vice Media and Vox Media changed their SPAC plans amid a lackluster demand. Vox opted to acquire digital publisher Group Nine and Vice hired financial advisors to look for a buyer or to sell itself in pieces.

Axios recently reported that the prospects for Forbes’s SPAC deal looked shaky, as there have been some signs that the company has looked at other options as the market has cooled.

Axios reported in December that despite the SPAC plans, a private investment firm was working on a private buyout bid for Forbes at a $620 million valuation.

And, in Februrary, Forbes said it agreed to a $200 million investment from Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange. The deal made Binance Forbes’ second-largest shareholder, following Integrated Whale Media, a Hong Kong-based investment firm that bought a 95% stake in the company from the Forbes family in 2014. .

Founded as a magazine in 1917, Forbes has long championed capitalism and entrepreneurship and is perhaps best known for its annual list of the world’s wealthiest people.

A view of the Forbes China Group Headquarters is seen on November 23, 2021 in Shanghai, China.
The storied media company sold a 95% stake to IWM, a Hong Kong-based investment firm in 2014.
VCG via Getty Images
Forbes has scrapped its plans to go public via a blank-check company.
Forbes has scrapped its plans to go public via a blank-check company.
AFP via Getty Images

Forbes has evolved from a print publication into a digital media company, which boasts of reaching more than 150 million people worldwide. It now relies more on key franchises like Under 30, conferences and a slew of brand extensions in real estate and education, as well as advertiser-paid content, than on magazine sales.

In February, Forbes said it reeled in $94 million of revenue in the fourth quarter of last year, marking a 51 percent increase from a year earlier. The firm said it made $18 million in profit for the quarter, an increase of 80 percent from the year before.

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