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Sign O' the (TV) times

Bonnier's been raiding across the pond again

In line with the company's professed desire for new international, especially American, acquisitions, the Swedish media giant scooped up another chunk of American magazines this week, this time from Time Inc, just in front of bidders such as U2 lead singer Bono, Active Interest Media and Intermedia Partners. But the deal has left some of the other bidders feeling unhappy about the proceedings, and an article in Portfolio Magazine suggests Time's sale to Bonnier might have been a done deal weeks ago:

“You could see six to eight weeks ago that Bonnier was the lead horse and we kept asking, ‘should we be in it?’” said one source Thursday. “And they kept saying it wasn’t and we should stay in it. But to have six people go through the expense and the time that its takes to complete the due diligence when you know that you’ve already picked someone is wrong”... “It was the most screwed up process I’ve ever seen,” said one bidder. “It was the worst offering memorandum I’ve ever seen. The information was incomplete. We basically had to go through and build the business model from the ground up to figure out Time Inc.’s costs, which I’m sure is what Bonnier did too. We had to go through the expense of getting lawyers and accounts and the banks to go through the multiples and it turned out to be unnecessary because they had already made up their minds.”

For Bonnier, the Time Inc deal follows neatly on the heels of purchasing half of World Publications last year. New acquisitions Time4Media and The Parenting Group are to be combined with World Publication, creating a publishing group with sales of $350 million and approximately 1,000 employees. Bonnier will be the majority owner in the new company, while Terry Snow, the founder of World Publications, will hold a minority interest.

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