Bauer Media sold to Mercury Capital
One of Australia’s largest publishers, Bauer Media, will soon be in the hands of private equity, with Mercury Capital agreeing to buy the business.
The deal includes the Pacific Magazines assets which Bauer recently acquired from Seven West Media for $40m.
Under Mercury Capital’s ownership, the company will be rebranded, however its new name is not yet clear.
Bauer Media is exiting Australia
Mercury Capital describes itself as a firm which seeks to “invest alongside management, founders and other shareholders in businesses that demonstrate leadership in their industry, clear growth strategies and compelling growth opportunities”.
It’s not yet clear what Mercury Capital’s intentions are with the local business, but local CEO Brendon Hill said the sale was marked an exciting new chapter.
“With new ownership and our bolstered portfolio, we have unparalleled opportunities to connect with more Australians than ever before and continue our strategy of digital growth and innovation,” he said.
“We have increased flexibility to diversify revenue streams and grow and innovate across our multi-platform offerings. Additionally, we are well placed to invest in the key drivers of future success – high-quality content and digital development which is good for us, our audiences, clients and the Australian industry as a whole.”
And despite the ongoing challenges facing the magazine publisher – including the drift to digital, the ad market downturn and multiple rounds of redundancies and stand-downs – Hill was optimistic about the future.
“Despite the challenges presented by COVID-19, we have seen significant growth in subscriptions and digital audiences across our food, home, youth and fashion brands, demonstrating that Australians still love and read our brands. We have seen great vision, success and growth under Bauer Media Group ownership and now look forward to working alongside Mercury Capital to build on this growth under a new brand in the future,” he said.
Bauer Media’s COO Veit Dengler, based in Germany, thanked the Australian teams for their contribution to Bauer’s local magazine brands.
“We have been proud to be the custodian of these iconic brands in Australia. I would like to thank our talented teams for their commitment and the contribution they have made to Bauer Media. I wish them well for the future,” he said.
The sale is subject to regulatory approval with the transaction expected to be complete in mid-July and the new brand to be announced in the coming months.
Dengler said Bauer Media remains committed to magazine publishing.
“Bauer Media remains committed to magazine publishing. This decision supports our strategy to invest in our market leading brands where we believe we are best placed to do so,” he said.
Mumbrella will be interviewing local Bauer Media CEO Brendon Hill later this morning.
topics
Bauer Media
Brendon Hill
magazines
Mercury Capital
print magazines
print media
print revenue
Veit Dengler
Not sure if this bodes well. It would be interesting to know what Mercury’s track record is with companies that they have acquired previously, and especially any publishing companies.
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This deal seems to be an absolute bargain for Mercury, no matter declining industry or not.
Hopefully they invest in the business, really not much further cost cutting you can do with Bauer and Pac…
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Mercury says it wants to develop the digital assets, literally weeks after the geniuses at Bauer sacked virtually the entire Pacific digital team – all the very people that had been whipping Bauer in the marketplace. Bauer has awful numbers, no digital expertise at all and no one in management who knows anything at all about it. This is like a bad comedy.
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Well that was a wild and pointless adventure which led to how many jobs being lost?
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Wonder how much the little southern hemisphere sojourn cost the Bauer clan?
Surely rates as a pretty incredible series of incompetent moves that has destroyed the careers and livelihoods of so many people
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This has turned into an absolute goat rodeo
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I recently refused to work for Bauer from Pacific Magazines because Bauer Digital technology managers seem like a fraud to me no directions having no clues at all about technology and engineering practices maybe just ripping off the company for benefiting his family and close friends. Nepotism at its finest as it seems there is no proper checks and balances at management level. I guess Mercury will notice this just a matter of time and sort these flaws out in a heartbeat.
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Another episode of overseas take-over of Australian-grown assets; another lesson which will go unlearned by our Federal government. So much for gov’ts being motivated by keeping talented Australians employed and IP under Australian control.
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“no digital expertise at all”…. thats a stretch
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This is so infuriating (and sad) when they’ve torn the teams apart, left barely anyone to create + lead, let alone innovate. It’s only the ruthless and blood-thirsty who survive.
Bauer has single-handedly ruined an industry and a lot of careers.
I can barely wait to hear what empty sentences Brendon serves up.
Honestly – those Bauer bigwigs are a bunch of buffoons. I hope they find it hard to sleep at night.
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Hi i_i,
You can read my full chat with Brendon here:
https://mumbrella.com.au/bauer-has-left-the-building-what-next-for-magazines-in-australia-631475
Thanks,
Vivienne – Mumbrella
The catastrophic collapse in audience traffic for former Pacific titles in the time since the purchase by Bauer says otherwise. The numbers can’t be spun and they certainly don’t lie.
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Always the same: much optimism, great opportunities! Always said as the businesses spirals inexorably down into the whirlpool of diminished returns, and always followed by more consolidation and cost-cutting. At least the Titanic only took a few hours to sink. This is excruciating to watch.
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From memory, Bauer bought what was left of ACP for around $450m. Add $40m for Pacific which Bauer tried to get out of due to Covid-19 market downturn (amongst other things). Can’t imagine Mercury paying much more than $60m for the whole lot! Chump change for the Mercury Chairman who just bought his new Sydney house for $30m.
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That’s unfair on goats – they are pretty smart.
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Interesting to see old Channel Nine businesses are now 100% or part owned by Mercury Capital.
Ticketek & ACP/Bauer
https://vpeg3.info/mercury-capital-fund-3/
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10 years ago a very senior exec on the tech side at ACP described working there as trying to get out of a car heading for a cliff while the MPA was just a bunch of execs biting their own noses off.
Not sure Bauer had much to do with the demise especially given that, generally, locals ran these companies. Put it down to magazines have found it the hardest to find the advantages and opportunities…even more so than news publishers. Bauer make money on smaller circs in a bigger market elsewhere but what can you do when the ad industry walks away even when mags were still selling millions.
Mags didn’t know how to change their spiel and advertisers overdosed on the advertising opioid.
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It’s a blessing Bauer decided to make my role redundant prior to the Pac merger. I’m much happier at News.
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From sketchy reports as it’s a private deal the price paid was sub $50 million.
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So…the next question is, what are they going to call it now? Mercury Media?
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Murky Media seems about right.
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I’m sure they’ll find a way..
It’s my greatest hope that Mercury Capital cherishes the mastheads and that they invest in the people that know them inside and out. What has been an ongoing reduction of editorial teams at Bauer is appalling, the merging of content voices across titles is rapidly diluting the brand identities, and the placement of one editor across two or more titles does absolutely nothing for masthead strength, revenue potential and good old-fashioned rivalry between titles. Then there’s the complete separation of print and digital teams, which is beyond comprehension in 2020.
I agree that there is potential in Bauer’s products, across all platforms, but the magazines are in the present state because of the present leadership: a bunch of buffoons that wouldn’t have the slightest clue – or care in the world – about what falls between the front and back covers, let alone the last remaining bodies in the engine rooms.
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Bauer is one of the grosses places to work. Pacific was not much better. Some of the good eggs aside, the magazine industry is run by nasty, bitchy harridans who go out of their way to make people’s live miserable. I got out and I would implore others to do so too. You can bang on about nostalgia all u want. Magazines are dead. They died years ago and like many a failed relationship, it’s time to move on and quit whingeing about Germans, poor investments and digital opportunities. The only upside, many of those queens have now been dethroned. There’s only a couple left to go. Off with their heads. Vile.
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The stats show Bauer digital department has the LOWEST employee retention rate in the last 5 years due to no confidence and distrust.
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Now To Love is an absolute dog of a product. New Idea alone used to double NTL’s traffic. Used to.
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$35M apparently. $5M less than Bauer paid for Pacific a few weeks ago (and $115M less than the rumoured amount Mercury had agreed to pay Bauer before the ACCC decided they needed more time). Although the new, bigger company does come with Bauer management and the dreaded ‘circles of excellence’ so it kinda makes sense.
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My knowledge of magazine management is close to zero, but I am quite knowledgeable regarding German management. Mercedes merged with Chrysler (more like a takeover) and then immediately started to dismantle all the strengths that had made Chrysler worth buying in the first place. Getting into bed with German companies who believe they know it all is a risky business and Australian magazines involved with Bauer now have the opportunity to managed their business’s for today and tomorrow. All the best with your new owners.
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