Sep 23, 2020 - Economy

Penske acquiring Billboard, Hollywood Reporter, Vibe in joint venture

Sara Fischer

Photo by Todd Williamson/Getty Images for THR

Hollywood entertainment company MRC and media conglomerate Penske Media Corp., which owns publications like Rolling Stone, Variety and Deadline, announced on Wednesday a deal to create two joint ventures in publishing and content.

Why it matters: Nearly all of the major U.S. publications covering Hollywood will be housed under one joint venture.

Details: There will be no leadership changes at either company as a result of the new joint ventures, and both PMC and MRC will continue to operate independently. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Both MRC and Penske will hold significant ownership in each of the two joint ventures.

The newly-established "PMRC" publishing joint venture will house The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Vibe and Music Business Worldwide. PMRC’s day-to-day operations will be led by PMC, which also houses publications like Deadline, WWD, SHE Media, Sportico others.
The newly-established content joint partnership will produce TV, movies and other multimedia projects using intellectual property from both companies. It will leverage the content production expertise at MRC to produce new multimedia products from PMRC's editorial brands, like Variety and Hollywood Reporter.

What's next: The transition period will last through the end of 2020.

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Penske acquiring Billboard, Hollywood Reporter, Vibe in joint venture

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