Thursday 13 November 2008

Would you pay $300 million for ITP?

From a commenter:

ITP is up forsale. $300m and its yours. Serafin is touting it about, but noone wants to touch an overstretched media house in an economic downturn with ads orders being cancelled faster than those being placed. Maybe launching a mag a week wasnt so smart after all, as for those commitments in India, tsk.

Sure as hell isn't on my Christmas list.

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

$300 million? What planet is Serafin on?

A profits multiplier of 6 suggest ITP profits of $50 million - I don't see that can be the case given the number of Bentley's

A turnover multipler of 1.something - well, the turnovers not that much either.

And it is completely the wrong time to be punting a business.

The man is crazy.

Anonymous said...

300 million is a fair price, in Lire.

Anonymous said...

AMG will probably snap it up at whatever price Bob the Builder cares to name.

Anonymous said...

I wonder what Gavin Dickinson thinks - he did launch Time Out didnt he...

Anonymous said...

I worked at ITP four years ago.

Not a month weny by without the "ITP for sale" rumour.

What evidence do you have that it's true this time?

Anonymous said...

How about a thread on the National's new weekend magazine, M? Opinions on it?

Anonymous said...

their IT biz money spinner is rapidy depeciating as an asset.. the consumer stuff is for show... assuming they do 50 mil in rev, they'd be doing well to hit 20%profit... so say 10 mil... in this market you'd be lookng at a multiple of between 2 and 3 ...prolly closer to 2...but being generous...reasonable price tag: $25 mil USD...if you could get it (doubtful...advertising is highly cyclical...no one but an idiot would touch this, certainly no one outside the region will--- and who in the region can/will? mr. s-- you should have bailed a year ago!)

Anonymous said...

ITP do about $10 000 000 in profit, Fact. It is a fair ship to look at if you get a multiple of 5/8. Bob is MAD and wants 30 or 40. The directors all want to sell & cut this place, Bob loves the game & will never sell. What would he do - garden? Never be sold. His loyal staff will be paid well & will be part of the estate. His family will keep the business & one of Bob's mad step son's will take over the business & drive it into the ground.

Anonymous said...

closer to $100 million than $50 million....

Anonymous said...

anon @07.24.

i saw M magazine on the weekend. i simply cannot believe that on one page they were telling you the best way and best times of the day to smoke cigars !!!!
the rest of the planet are trying to discourage killing yourself and others by smoking and yet these clowns are advocating it.
Martin clearly has dropped the ball there.

Anonymous said...

it was proudly announced at a staff do earlier this year that ITP is now a $40 million company.

Anonymous said...

Itp for 300million? You're having a laugh me old china.

And what kind of moron sells at the bottom of an economic cycle?

Clearly ITP had gone as far as it could under the present bunch - its attempts to bring in more experienced staff from more mature markets failed utterly and without the requisite cultural capital to match the financial muscle it had nowhere else to go. Contract publishing will only take you so far however sound your money-making model might be.

But maybe there's more to this than meets the eye. Maybe they realise the game is up and the entire business will go down the swanney? Be interesting to see what the real valuation is....

Anonymous said...

given that ITP manages to hijack almost every thread in here, i thought i'd hijack an ITP thread with something else.

The Business Breakfast had Rudy Giuliani on this morning, it was bloody good radio.

that's it, just spreading the love.

Anonymous said...

to 19.49 - are you yet another of the people fired by ITP for being stupid cunts? Looks like it. Do us all a favour and fuck off back to the hole you crawled out of you pathetic weasel.

Anonymous said...

this whole thread doesn't have a shred of truth about it. dow jones couldn't stand up the $300m sale story - and they run any rubbish these days.

Anonymous said...

Rudy is in town lecturing, and doing interviews with all and sundry, so far from a scoop.
but he is an entertaining guy - good radio, it must be said.
shame that stuttering idiot khan had to follow it and undo all the good work done on the show before his..

Anonymous said...

I wear being fired from ITP as a badge of pride - they had to cough an extra £2000 cos i had already upped my pay by 50% when i was hired. They were mugs ready to be taken in my book

it's been said many times before but there are not many people at ITP who'd survive 5mins outside Dubai - Serafin included. Just read his UK Company's House directorship history - a whole host of failed companies including the illustrious ACE Promotions of Norwich.

Anonymous said...

multiples on print media are no where near 5-8x... that was 10 years ago-- which was the time to sell, not now

Anonymous said...

21:43, would you care to expand on your theory that dow jones prints any old rubbish? or are you from one of their competitors who gets continuously scooped, day in, day out, to the point where most people in the financial industry believe you have given up and gone home?

Anonymous said...

New thread please:
Rumours are flying that City 7 is about to go bust.
Would anyone notice if it did?

Anonymous said...

ITP going down the swanny is as predictable as the words "ITP" and "cunt" appearing in almost every thread.

I wish ITP every success and all the best in the future.
(By "success" i mean that what can be attributed to a drunken ex-Lehman Brothers employee standing atop Brooklyn Bridge the day the bankruptcy was announced. And by "best" I mean the kind of luck a diseased one-legged rodent is blessed with in Animal Hell, on "National Burn-a-Rodent-in-Hell" day.)

Anonymous said...

New thread request: M magazine, The National's new weekend mag - any good?

Anonymous said...

Never, ever have I heard such a joke. I would be screaming with laughter if this was told to me in a pub...but, its actually true. Serafin and his pom pricks actually think its possible. My word! Hes ripped off so many nieve advertisers and now thinks he can sell damaged goods..good luck you 02 thief! Oh and by the way...how are the shares doing?

Anonymous said...

ITP has started the cull. Mags are closing, heads rolling... Benevolent employers as they are, I am sure the release packages will be non-existant. It is great to see a media house committed to its quality titles. They are such good brands with great editorial 'teams' behind them surely they could be sold off individually? Such a shame they just splashed out on a new office way out in the desert...and on all those fans to prevent the factory workers from suffocating.

Anonymous said...

Why not just get rid of the 2 Akawi muppets? That'd save about $150 million in salaries. Are you listening Robert?

I just feel sorry for all those "talented" "Editors" when the redundancies start to kick in, imagine coming back to the UK with your tail between your legs, amidst the greatest recession post WW2, suddenly realising that the only jobs you can get Features editor at the Grimsby Gazette or staff writer with Crochet Weekly. Oh, and your house is now worth 65% of what it was when you set off for Dubai.

Anonymous said...

What a bloody miserable thread! Wishing ITP to go down the drain, when people's friends, fathers, mothers and spouses work hard to make a living there, is quite despicable even for DMO posters. You lot should be ashamed of yourselves - especially you 07.42 - your attitude, quite frankly, stinks of pig shit.

Anonymous said...

I'm so sorry I clearly touched a raw nerve with you Robert... but hey, ur Grade I listed castle in Scotland's probably still holding it's value, no? Sorry. :(

Anonymous said...

Question: If the BPA audit shows that paid ab sales are roughly 800 a week, where do the rest of the copies go?!