Report: PaidContent may come on the market as Guardian looks to raise cash
ContentNext, the company behind tech and media blog PaidContent may come on the market as parent company Guardian News and Media looks to cut costs and raise money.
The unconfirmed report at Daily Finance notes that Guardian News and Media “is losing so much money — £100,000 ($162,000) per day — that it may be forced to sell assets to raise cash, industry sources say. One property that could be in play is ContentNext, the U.S.-based web publisher of PaidContent.org.”
WebMediaBrands is mentioned as a possible buyer, with CEO Alan Meckler saying “I would certainly be interested in discussing it.”
It’s hard to envisage that PaidContent is cash flow negative, so selling it off is hardly going to fix long term cash flow at the Guardian. If things are as desperate as suggested though, non-core assets are usually the first to go, and ContentNext would be the top of that list. The sale price would be anyone’s guess: the company was acquired for $30 million in July 2008, right before the global financial crisis, so the price had a premium built in that might be difficult to obtain in a fire sale today.
