Consortium incl. Carlyle Group buys parent company of "Editor & Publisher"

[DeepModem Mom]

Editor & Publisher: Bid To Take Over 'E&P' Parent, VNU, Appears Successful
Published: May 21, 2006

AMSTERDAM -- A group of private investors said Sunday their euro 7.7 billion (U.S. $9.7 billion) bid for Dutch publishing company VNU NV, owner of Editor & Publisher, Billboard, Hollywood Reporter, Adweek and dozens of other leading magazines, has succeeded.

The investors, who operate under the name Valcon Acquisition BV, said that 78.7 percent of VNU's shareholders had tendered their shares to the offer price of euro 29.50 (U.S. $37.15) per share....

***

The consortium is comprised of AlpInvest Partners NV, The Blackstone Group LP, The Carlyle Group, Hellman & Friedman LLC, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. LP, and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP.

VNU, which has most of its business in the United States, does marketing research under the Nielsen brand name and publishes about four dozen magazines in America.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002539910

[Ian David]

1. DAMN IT!!! E&P WAS A KEY MEDIA WATCHDOG!!!

FUCK THE REPUKES!

[Kolesar]

5. Double damn it . .. eom .. .

[itzamirakul]

8. If it was a key watchdog publication, what better reason does Carlyle

et al have for buying it? The papers that were named in the OP are aimed at specific markets, but it will be interesting to find out what other publications are included.

I am all for private business...to a certain degree.

I am all for government regulations...to a certain degree.

[blm]

32. Moves like this will assure them victories for 2006 and 2008 - they will

control PERCEPTION - before and AFTER perception of how the voting turned out.

[MountainLaurel]

15. The fox is now in charge of the henhouse

:hide:

[librechik]

2. oh jeez. If they can't cheat through the front door, they buy their way in

the back way.

We are so screwed.

[Book Lover]

3. VNU was bought?!

Holy cow - they pub quite a lot of paper. Why would anyone invest in any mag group with sales the way they have been, are, and are projected to remain? I mean, it just doesn't make business sense to me.

[SeattleRob]

4. damn!

I bet they'll appoint a "watchdog" like Howie Kurtz to keep an eye on the evil "liberal media."

[Sperk]

6. Is there ANYTHING that the Carlyle Group DOESN'T own?

Here a good "get back at ya, for the media". If they're gonna wiretap you, why don't you start shedding a little light on the truth?!

Start with a little expose on the Carlyle group and move onto ALL the no bid contracts (outrageous prices) and the NOTHING we get for our billions!

Did you really think they would turn on you, too?

[Monk06]

18. Here's a nice short summery of Carlyle and how they operate....

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Carlyle_Group

[blm]

7. FOCK THIS - Plus, Santorum supporters buying up Pennsylvania's big papers.

This is it folks - this is how elections will be stolen - and NO newspaper will be there to get the REAL story on election fraud.

We are royally FOCKED and people want to look the other way and blame Democratic lawmakers when it's Democratic BUSINESSMEN who are failing to counter their GOP counterparts.

[grasswire]

9. well, there goes the neighborhood

Unbelievable. They really do mean to win at any cost.

Isn't KKR another of those awful entities?

[DeepModem Mom]

10. I wonder if anyone here knows something about these other companies? nt

[Notoverit]

11. They've been doing this since watergate. All dissenters get bought.

I believe Lionsgate - or was it Regal movie theatres - one of them was bought by Carlyle right at the time Farenheiht 911 was being shown.

[robinlynne]

12. and the nielsen group, i.e. nielsen ratings

went with the package. that could be terrible news too.
Wish Ted turner was in a media buying mood.

[progressoid]

13. Aw shit - Let's hope the interweb picks up more steam to fill in the gaps

[swag]

14. Goodness me.

[intheflow]

16. This is chilling.

And seems to be a growing trend: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1256284&mesg_id=1256284

K&R.

[shance]

17. Is there anything we as citizens can do about these takeovers?

n/t

[Thickasabrick]

21. Get more involved in the "net neutrality" debate. The net will

be the only way to find out what's really going on so we need to keep it "free".

[blm]

23. We need the Dem party to make EXPOSING the RW control a PRIORITY issue.

I swear they cannot see the forest for the tress - THIS is how they plan to get away with stealing more elections - by controlling the perception BEFORE and AFTER the voting.

[Octafish]

19. That's the end of E&P.

Too bad, as they were the few to publish what's what, no matter what.

Check out the latest on Steno Judy and how she kept her wug shut re 9-11 before Sept 11.

Imagine that won't be brought up too much anymore.

WARMONKEY

[blm]

22. Octafish - there's MORE - Big GOPs are buying Pennsylvania's big papers

and they are undoubtedly doing it to protect Santorum and steal Penn for 2008.

Check out my threads in GD or GDP - this crap is going down while Dem activists are diverted with other hotbutton issues.

[Gabi Hayes]

20. So long, Greg Mitchell....nice knowing you. hope you catch on somewhere.

he's relentless in holding the chimp and his courtesans' feet to the fire

he loves to go after the likes of Richard Cohen, for one example

[paparush]

24. So.... THIS is their evil plan... Carlyle is going to buy EVERYTHING!!

[proud patriot]

25. What a drag

:-(

[paparush]

26. Klassic Karl Rove Maneuver

[rman]

27. See, they're global corporations - not American or anything,

they are in effect stateless, more commonly known as "transnational".

[sandnsea]

28. The Ownership Society

They own everything, including us.

[marions ghost]

29. RIP E&P

:mad:

[Roland99]

30. So this is how liberty dies. To the sound of money changing hands.

[w4rma]

31. shit. evil bastards. (nt)