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Penton to enter Chapter 11, restructure debt
2/9/2010
By Sean Callahan
New York—Penton Media announced Tuesday that it has reached an agreement with its lenders to restructure its debt through a pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan.
“This is an excellent outcome for Penton, because they’ll now be able to manage their company and take advantage of the transition work they’ve done to make it an information and digital media company,” said Roland DeSilva, managing partner at media investment bank DeSilva & Phillips.
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L.A. Story: A Battle Between Old And New Media With A Surprise Ending
1/27/2010
By Ken Sonenclar
After decades with less disruption than a German train schedule, Hollywood media is rocking from a tumultuous year of deals and reinvention. Nothing less than the future of B2B publishing is playing out, and the story (spoiler alert!) has a surprise ending.
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Enquiring minds get news first
1/22/2010
By Andrea Sachs
"The irony at this point is that the Enquirer, unlike its long-standing reputation, is really doing good journalism," said media-investment banker Ken Sonenclar, of DeSilva + Phillips. "Unfortunately, in this down market, the publication is suffering." Additionally, the market, which includes People and Us Weekly, is overcrowded.
The days when the Enquirer could sell 8 million copies of an issue with Elvis in his coffin are gone forever. But there are still some encouraging signs, said Sonenclar.
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Proponen que Ted Turner fusione CNN y The New York Times
11/13/2009
By
El director general de Silva + Phillips, el banco de inversión neoyorkino especializado en medios de comunicación, dijo que le gustaría que en el 2010 haya una fusión entre CNN y el New York Times, a través de una compra de Ted Turner.
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ANALYSIS: Comcast/NBCU May Create More M&A Activity:
11/12/2009
By Claire Atkinson
Some Wall Street players are licking their lips at the prospect of a whole range of new assets coming on the market as a result of Comcast’s imminent deal to acquire control of NBC Universal. While it’s unclear what properties, if any, might change hands once the deal is complete, a whole host of MA specialists are ready to pounce.
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Five Media Deals I’d Like To See Happen In 2010
11/11/2009
By Ken Sonenclar
This brutal year in M&A is mercifully winding down. The global credit squeeze, deep recession, and shrinking valuations have kept deals in check. But with the economy rebooting and many big media and tech companies sitting on piles of cash, conditions are ripe for striking big deals next year. Here are five deals that would go a long way towards lifting us out of the deal-making doldrums—and also help reshape the media sector in important ways.
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Why PE Firms Are So Downbeat, And What It Means For The Media Sector
10/30/2009
By Ken Sonenclar
Every day brings an earnings release, government report or trade-association survey that indicates the worst is behind us. Even news from the long-dormant upper reaches of corporate dealmaking is encouraging. Disney (NYSE: DIS), Dell, Xerox and Cisco (NSDQ: CSCO) – “strategics” in every sense of the word – are all in the midst of billion-dollar acquisitions, and Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA), GE and Vivendi (EPA: VIV) are seeking to hammer out some kind of megadeal for NBCU.
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Consolidation Unlikely This Year for Mobile Ad Networks, says Jay MacDonald, other industry experts
10/12/2009
By Rita Chang
Counting on mobile to be the M&A spark that kicks off a new wave of deals? Don't hold your breath. No one network has become a game-changer, says Jay MacDonald
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Roland DeSilva says sale of Dow Jones indexes would be in keeping with current trend
8/25/2009
By Sean Callahan
Last Saturday, The Wall Street Journal reported that News Corp. is exploring the sale of its stock market indexing business, which includes the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The Journal is owned by News Corp., so even though Dow Jones & Co. declined to comment on the story, it is hard to doubt its veracity.
“There's a lot of value in them,” Roland DeSilva, managing partner of media investment bank DeSilva & Phillips, said of the stock market indexes. “They're great brands. It would be an interesting acquisition. “I think [News Corp. Chairman-CEO Rupert] Murdoch selling them off also indicates that he wants to lower his debt structure.”
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Magazine Deals: Not Fit For Print? - Reed Phillips on RD and other PE properties leverage probllem
8/18/2009
By Rimin Dutt
RD's prepackabed bankruptcy is a "story that we are going to see over and over again for a number of PE deals in the magazine sector,” says Reed Phillips, a managing director with Desilva & Phillips. “It’s inevitable as a lot of these companies are leveraged at seven to eight times Ebitda.”
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CEO Murphy out as family takes reins at Rodale - Reed Phillips notes his disruption of Rodale's cult
7/30/2009
By Matthew Flamm
“He disrupted the culture of the company in a way that made a lot of the people who created Rodale uncomfortable,” said Reed Phillips, managing partner of media banking firm DeSilva & Phillips.
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BusinessWeak for Sale - DeSilva says: "They can't compete as a weekly anymore"
7/14/2009
By Keith Kelly
The McGraw-Hill Cos. is turning the page on its 80-year ownership of BusinessWeek. The company, whose far-flung assets include credit-rating agency
Standard & Poor's and consumer-satisfaction researcher J.D. Power
& Associates, confirmed yesterday that is was exploring a sale of
the magazine, and had hired Evercore Partners to shop the title. Added Roland DeSilva, managing partner at media investment bank DeSilva
& Phillips: "They can't compete as a weekly anymore because
financial information is so time sensitive."
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Business Week sale may fetch only $1 - Reed Phillips says look to OpenGate Capital, Platinum Equity
7/14/2009
By Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson
McGraw-Hill could reap
just $1 from a sale of Business Week, according to people familiar with the 80-year-old financial magazine’s losses.
The
publisher has appointed Evercore, the boutique investment bank, to sell
the business after concluding it was non-core, two people familiar with
the decision said.
Reed
Phillips, managing partner of DeSilva & Phillips, the media
investment bank, said more likely buyers were OpenGate Capital, which
bought TV Guide; Platinum Equity, owner of the San Diego Union Tribune;
and Mansueto Ventures, a publisher.
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McGraw-Hill Puts BusinessWeek on Auction Block - Other Biz Mags Unlikely Buyers, says Reed Phillips
7/13/2009
By SHIRA OVIDE and DENNIS BERMAN
A sale of BusinessWeek could be difficult. "Other business magazines aren't doing much
better, so they're unlikely to be a buyer," said Reed Phillips,
managing partner of DeSilva + Phillips, an investment bank specializing
in media deals.
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New Track Media to acquire CK Media
7/7/2009
By Jason Fell
New
Track Media owner BVK Holdings is expected to announce today its
acquisition of CK Media, Primedia’s former crafts division, from
private equity firm Sandler Capital Management.
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Tough integration ahead for WME Entertainment - Sonenclar sees hurt feelings, new agencies ahead
5/5/2009
By Richard Morgan
Although the merger of equals announced Monday
between 111-year-old William Morris Agency LLC and 14-year-old Endeavor Agency
LLC was preceded by six months of careful deliberation, those affected by the
talent agencies' integration can expect at least another six months of
pain.
"There's going to be a lot of hurt feelings, up and down the line,"
said Ken Sonenclar, managing director in the digital media and technology group
of New York investment bank DeSilva & Phillips LLC. And that integration
pain, he added, "seems likely to spawn new agencies in the near
term."
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Martha Stewart to speak at DeSilva+Phillips Future of Celebrity Media Conference
5/5/2009
By
Martha Stewart will discuss her use of the Twitter medium at the
upcoming DeSilva + Phillips, Mediabankers(tm) conference, The Future of
Celebrity Media. This morning conference takes place before an invited
audience May 14th at the Tribeca Film Center in New York, and other
speakers include the most notable editors, executives and entrepreneurs
of celebrity media both print and online. There is no charge for
attendance, but space is limited and invitations must be requested from
DeSilva+Phillips, Mediabankers, a leading media investment bank in New
York City.
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Microsoft Sells Franchise Gator To Landmark Interactive; Price Around $20 Million
4/3/2009
By Rafat Ali
Microsoft’s digital advertising division, which includes what was formerly aQuantive, has sold off its small subsidiary Franchise Gator, to Landmark Interactive, paidContent has learned. The sale price is around $20 million.
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MediaPost
DeSilva+Phillips Celebrity Reports shows Print Pubs need better use of web
3/26/2009
By Gavin O'Mallley
As seemingly trivial as celebrity news is,
established publishers have for years made the potentially fatal
mistake of not taking its online coverage more seriously.
That's according to a new report from media investment bank DeSilva +
Phillips, which credits the larger economic downturn for exposing media
companies' failure to effectively recreate their print franchises
online.
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WPP's Spence at DeSilva+Phillips Media Summit: 'We Got The Memo: Keep On Acquiring'
2/6/2009
By David Kaplan
While the sputtering economy has slowed M&A activity considerably the last few months, WPP Group
apparently didn't get the memo that now's the time to retrench and
wait. Actually, Sheila Spence, SVP in WPP's corporate development, told
attendees at the DeSilva + Phillps Dealmakers Summitt
that she's gotten a very different memo. Speaking on a panel with other
ad agency execs, Spence said: "We did get a memo: keep on acquiring."
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