Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Variety Acquired By Penske Media

The bible of entertainment industry news, Variety, has been acquired by Internet entrepreneur Jay Penske, via his firm, Penske Media, the companies said today. Financial details of the acquisition were not announced. Penske Media owns such online publications as Deadline, HollywoodLife, BGR, and TVLine MovieLine, a number of which are major competitors to Variety. Penske acquired Variety from parent firm Reed Business Information, which is part of Reed Elsevier. Variety has been covering entertainment and Hollywood news since 1905. The companies said that debt and equity for the acquisition came from Third Point LLC, and that Reed Elsevier was advised by Evercore Partners. Jay Penske has been building a huge, online blog publishing empire here in Los Angeles; the firm was previously known as Mail.com Media Corporation (MMC) before selling off its email service in 2010. Penske is the son of automotive magnate Roger Penske, owner of automotive firm Penske Corporation.

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