John Wiley & Sons to acquire hungry Minds for 0.37 times revenue

Weekly Corporate Growth Report, Aug 20, 2001

The Deal: John Wiley & Sons Inc. has agreed to purchase Hungry Minds Inc., the publisher of the "For Dummies" series of books, for $90 million. According to terms of the deal, John Wiley will also assume $92.5 million of Hungry Minds' debt.

Discussion: Hungry Minds specializes in publishing how-to books and manuals, including its popular "For Dummies" series, which includes titles such as PCs for Dummies and Home Buying for Dummies. It also publishes the well known study tool, CliffsNotes, as well as Frommer's travel guides and Betty Crocker's cookbooks. Hungry Minds' technical brands and imprints, like its Bible series and AOL Press, serve a more technically savvy audience. The company also offers online learning services through a number of Web sites.

John Wiley & Sons publishes a number of scientific, technical and medical works, including journals and reference works such as Current Protocols and Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology. The company also produces professional and nonfiction trade books and is a leading publisher of college textbooks. In addition to printed materials, John Wiley produces many new media titles on CDROM and provides online access to most of its journal titles.