21 Aug Conde Nast Sells Fairchild Fashion Media Brands
Penske Media Corporation, the parent of Variety, has acquired the U.S.-based trade publishing assets of Conde Nast’s Fairchild Fashion Media unit, the parent company of business-to-business brands Women’s Wear Daily, Footwear News, Beauty Inc, M and the Fairchild Summits.
The deal is expected to close next month. Financial details were not disclosed.
Penske Media Corporation’s brands include PMC Studios, Deadline.com Variety Magazine, Variety.com, CricketCountry.com, HollywoodLife, ENTV, India.com, Movieline, TVLine, BGR, AwardsLine, @hollywood, LA411, NY411, Young Hollywood Awards, The Style Awards, and Breakthrough of the Year Awards.
“This is a unique and remarkable opportunity to add a collection of esteemed global brands to our growing portfolio,” added Jay Penske, PMC chairman and CEO. “WWD and the other Fairchild properties are brands the entire PMC organization deeply respects, with an editorial heritage I have revered throughout my career. We look forward to welcoming this exceptional editorial team and profoundly talented organization to PMC.”
Consumer brands Style.com and NowManifest will remain at Condé Nast. Gina Sanders, FFM president and CEO since January 2010, will be remaining at Conde Nast parent company Advance Publications in a new role to be announced shortly. Employees of the acquired Fairchild assets will move to PMC with the sale.
Conde Nast CEO Charles Townsend said the decision to sell the Fairchild unit was in keeping with the magazine giant’s focus on investing in its core consumer brands, which range from Architectural Digest and the New Yorker to Vogue and Vanity Fair.
“Condé Nast has enjoyed unprecedented growth in our core consumer print, digital, mobile, events, video, television and film development businesses; this sale underscores our commitment to accelerating growth in these areas,” Townsend said. “Gina and her team have done a remarkable job leading FFM and its brands, and I commend them for shaping these businesses into valuable assets which are primed to flourish under Jay’s leadership with the PMC team.”
Comerica provided debt financing for the deal.