Willis Stein & Partners Agrees to Acquire Ziff-Davis Publishing for $780 Million - Company Business and Marketing

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, Dec 13, 1999

Willis Stein & Partners, a leading private equity investment firm, Monday announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Ziff-Davis Publishing from Ziff Davis, Inc. for $780 million in cash. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2000.

Willis Stein has again teamed with James D. Dunning, Jr. who will serve as Chairman and CEO of the new Ziff-Davis Holdings LLC and Chairman of Ziff Davis Publishing. Mike Perlis will continue as President and CEO of Ziff-Davis Publishing. Ziff-Davis Publishing's offices will remain at its current location in New York.

Ziff-Davis Publishing is the largest computing and Internet magazine publisher and the sixth largest magazine publisher in the U.S. With more than 80 worldwide publications serving the consumer and business-to-business markets, Ziff-Davis's publications cover everything from the Internet economy to family computing and gaming. Ziff-Davis publishes PC Magazine, the #1 ranked computer trade magazine and the world's largest business magazine; PC Week, the standard-setting IT newsweekly for those building ".com" enterprises; PC Computing, the #2 computer consumer title and a 1999 National Magazine Award winner; Inter@ctive Week, the #1 Internet newsweekly in the U.S.; and Yahoo! Internet Life, one of the fastest growing and best selling consumer magazines in the U.S.

Willis Stein & Partners will use Ziff-Davis Publishing as a platform to launch new special interest magazines, acquire additional magazines and create ancillary businesses.

Willis Stein & Partners, an experienced and successful investor in the media industry, earlier this year completed its successful 2-1/2 year turnaround of Petersen Publishing. Willis Stein, along with James D. Dunning Jr., Petersen's former Chairman and CEO, transformed the company into the largest publisher of special-interest magazines in the U.S. through acquisitions and new magazine launches, increasing the number of titles from 76 to 160. The company's brands were also expanded further into television, Internet, events, tradeshows and products. Willis Stein acquired Petersen in September 1996 for $465 million, completed a successful IPO on the New York Stock Exchange (PTN) in October 1997 and sold the company to Emap plc for $1.5 billion in the second largest media transaction announced in 1998, which closed in January 1999.

Avy Stein, Managing Partner of Willis Stein & Partners said, "Ziff-Davis is an extremely high quality publishing platform covering an important and rapidly growing sector of the economy. We are excited to be part of building upon its already excellent tradition. We are thrilled to be partnering again with Jim Dunning and building upon the success we achieved at Petersen Publishing. We look forward to working with the talented Ziff Davis Publishing management team and partnering with ZDNet and Ziff-Davis's other business ventures."

FMI: http://www.willisstein.com.

Willis Stein & Partners is a leading private equity investment firm specializing in investments in profitable, well-managed and growing businesses targeting the media, telecommunications, business services, manufacturing and health care industries. The principals of Willis Stein have made investments in 37 companies and currently manage approximately $1.2 billion of equity capital. Target investments include U.S. based public and private companies with transaction values ranging from $100 million to $1 billion. Other investments in the media industry made by the principals of Willis Stein include CTN Media Group, USApubs.com, Troll Communications, The Petersen Companies Inc., Transwestern Publishing, Standard Rate & Data Service (SRDS), Interlink Communications and New Vision Media.

James D. Dunning, Jr., an experienced media industry executive and long time business associate of Willis Stein, was part of the investment group led by Willis Stein that acquired Petersen in 1996. Dunning left Petersen in October 1999. Ziff-Davis is the fifth media company acquisition Dunning has completed with the principals of Willis Stein. The most recent, USApubs.com, was formed in July 1999 with the acquisition of Special Data Processing and Applied Interactive Media. Other companies that were acquired include Transwestern Publishing Company and Standard Rate & Data Service. Dunning was Executive Vice President, the #2 executive position at Ziff Communications, the predecessor company to Ziff-Davis Inc., from 1984 to 1986.

Ziff-Davis, Inc. is a leading media and marketing company focused on computing and Internet-related technologies, with principal platforms in print publishing, trade shows and conferences, online content, television and education. Ziff-Davis provides global technology companies with marketing strategies for reaching key decision-makers. Ziff-Davis has two series of common stock. One which is intended to track the performance of the ZD Group, which includes print publishing, trade shows and conferences, online learning and television businesses and a retained interest in ZDNet, and one which is intended to track the performance of its Internet business ZDNet; http://www.zdnet.com).