Text has been updated to reflect the expiration of Smulyan’s offer to take the company private.
Radio broadcasting owner Emmis Communications will sell its prominent magazine Texas Monthly to Genesis Park, a private equity firm. The sale, which is subject to working capital adjustments, will be for a reported $25 million.
In a press release Thursday, Emmis’ Chairman and CEO, Jeff Smulyan was quoted as saying, “Texas Monthly has been a member of the Emmis family for 18 years, so today is bittersweet. This transaction allows us not only to de-lever our balance sheet, but puts TM in the capable hands of one of Texas’ great families, the Hobbys.”
Hobby family members are known in Texas for having once held public office and owning the now-defunct Houston Post. Genesis Park’s founder Paul Hobby is the son of a former Texas lieutenant governor and grandson of a former governor.
This is one of several recent moves at Emmis related to a bigger business picture. In August, CEO Jeff Smulyan renewed his past efforts to buy the publicly held shares of the company, to take it private, but that effort ended on Friday. However, he’s been pushing regardless to reconfigure the conmpany debt situation and to reduce Emmis debt by selling off certain “non-core assets.”
Emmis has owned Texas Monthly since 1998 and announced in August that it was surveying “strategic alternatives” for its publishing division, Terre Haute radio stations and WLIB(AM) in New York. It announced an agreement to sell the Terre Haute stations recently.
Genesis Park primarily parents over communications and technology businesses in Texas. They include CapRock Services, Alpheus Communications and Vivante GMP.
The transaction is expected to close in early November.
