Architect of EMAP and Incisive deals pays the price

The departure of Stephen Grabiner from APAX is hardly a surprise. Bright, able and very ambitious, notwithstanding when your job is to make money from media investments and you lose most of it the axe is bound to fall. Apax bought both Incisive Media and EMAP (the latter in partnership with GMG). Both businesses, although horribly damaged by the economy and an overdependence on print, remain profitable but neither have been able to climb the mountain of debt that was used to fund their purchase.

Emap is arguably stronger than Incisive.  It has a much bigger events business, is  the more profitable and although the value of shareholder equity has been largely written off, has not had to give control to the banks.

With Carolyn McCall leaving GMG to join Easyjet, Grabiner exiting APAX there is hardly anyone left who can remember what the rationale for these deals was.  Emap was supposed to be geting a cash injection to fund acquisistions.  With large losses at GMG and no Grabiner at APAX how likely is that to happen?

To grow out of  the problem requires great bravery.  Will we see Emap and Incisive reviewing their assets, closing some and selling others? Or will both businesses struggle manfully under the debt but never really get anywhere.

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• GMG to write off £150m on Emap (newstatesman.com)
• Guardian Media Group to take £150m hit on value of Emap investment (telegraph.co.uk)
• GMG's losses increase due to write-downs (newstatesman.com)
• Guardian Media Group's pre-tax losses rise to £171m (guardian.co.uk)

GMG Purchase of Paid Content isn't Nuts.

The acquisition of Paidcontent.org by Guardian Media Group probably tells us more about the future of the newspaper business than the future of b2b. GMG are part owner of the old Emap b2b group and now acquire an internet content property for a reported $30m.



GMG are making steps that progressively alter the shape of its business. Future growth will not be in Newspapers they must reason. The executive in charge of the deal, Tim Brooks is not a thouroughbred newspaper man. He was the founding editor of Media Week and went on to be a MD at IPC magazines where he launched Nuts.



The other interesgting aspect of this is that Paidcontent began as a blog and morphed into a business. Hope for me yet then.

EMAP abandons Carter for Gilbertson

The appointment of Informa founder David Gilbertson to the role of EMAP Business CEO must have come as a bitter blow to the incumbent, Derek Carter. He must have mused that when GMG/APAX decided not to proceed with the merger of Incisive Media and EMAP, that his position was secure - at least for a while.

There activity in the headhunting world and it was an open secret that there was a process going on to appoint the CEO, but Carter must have assumed he was a certainty. Gilbertson is a a mature and experienced exec, turing Informa into one of the worlds leading business media houses. Nevertheless this is a challeng of a different kind. EMAP execs don't take kindly to outsiders and don't like being told what to do. It will be sporty.