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BFD Expert Voices - Media Deals

BFD Expert Voices

Ten years in as CEO of TMB and yesterday named chair, Bonnie Kintzer says her job excitement stems from the company's successful pivots. She dined with Kerry this week for our "1 big meal" interview series.

Why it matters: TMB (Trusted Media Brands) is a portfolio of media brands including Reader's Digest, Family Handyman, Taste of Home, FailArmy and The Pet Collective. Vox Media veteran Marty Moe recently joined as president. Kintzer also serves on the board of Thryv.

🤫 Why we chose the restaurant: The Smith in Midtown East. Kintzer says it's "great food, great location and quiet."

🥑 What we ate: We each had a biscuit. She had a cappuccino with almond milk and avocado toast. I had an iced coffee and steel-cut oatmeal.

This interview was edited for clarity, style and length.

"We are so not the company that I came to 10 years ago, and I say that with such pride of who we are today. ... We are a video-first, digital media company."

"When I walked in, we were almost primarily print. We still have print, and we love our print products. ... But obviously we're leaning into where the growth is ... social, streaming, web, affiliate."

Was that pivot from the Jukin acquisition?

"I have had three jobs at this company, so I've never been bored. The first pivot was digital, like websites. We had a lot of traffic when I first got there. We weren't monetizing it. We weren't thinking about the quality and the quantity and how to really build those relationships."

"The second, I would say, even bigger transformation was the acquisition of Jukin three years ago because we had never been able to ROI video. .... We are uniquely positioned to be a scaled, low-cost video player."

"We had hired a banker [Progress Partners] to look for acquisitions. ... I had gone to our investment group and said, 'The truth is you should either sell us or buy something because bigger is needed.'"

Will Instagram prioritizing original content impact Jukin?

"We're not worried. We have exclusive rights to the videos, so it's not as though somebody else is using them. We create content for each partner."

"We are in conversations with a few different companies right now. One of the challenges is some of these companies need a lot of investment, and that doesn't just mean investment of money; it's time. It means you're not doing something else on your roadmap because resources are not unlimited."

"We're focused on food and homes really to build out what we already have, maybe something in automotive. We haven't hired a bank."

🐍 1 fun fact: Kintzer owns a house inside a nature preserve in South Carolina, where she deals with alligators and snakes.

1 big thing: TMB CEO Bonnie Kintzer chats pivots

a photo illustration of Trusted Media Brands CEO Bonnie Kintzer in front of a picnic table print background

Photo illustration: Axios Visuals; Photo: Courtesy of Trusted Media Brands

Concord will not raise its bid for Hipgnosis Songs Fund, ending a multiweek bidding war with Blackstone for the troubled U.K.-based music royalties company.

Why it's the BFD: Blackstone is poised to end up with the catalog, while Hipgnosis shareholders will get to cash out with a sizable premium, Tim writes.

Driving the news: Concord confirmed this morning that its most recent bid of $1.51 billion was its final offer. 

Blackstone's most recent — and winning — offer came April 29 at $1.57 billion, or $1.30 per share.

Hipgnosis Song Fund, founded in 2018 by Merck Mercuriadis, includes the catalogs of Neil Young, Blondie, Shakira and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Catch up quick: Concord initially thought it had a deal to buy Hipgnosis in mid-April for $1.4 billion — or $1.16 per share. It would have been the music rights firm's largest acquisition. 

A few days later, Blackstone topped that offer with a $1.5 billion bid.

Just days after that, Concord came back with its $1.51 billion offer, or $1.25 per share.

Context: Blackstone has a long history with Hipgnosis and Mercuriadis.

The PE giant backs a sister fund called Hipgnosis Songs Capital, which Mercuriadis also manages. Last year, Hipgnosis Songs Fund tried to sell roughly a fifth of its catalog to Hipgnosis Songs Capital for £363 million ($452 million in today's dollars), but investors voted it down.

Additionally, Blackstone and Mercuriadis co-own Hipgnosis Songs Management, the investment adviser to HSF. That relationship has come under heavy scrutiny by HSF's board in recent months.

HSM held a six-month option to buy the entire HSF catalog should the two terminate their investment advisory agreement.

Concord bows out of bidding war with Blackstone for Hipgnosis

2. The BFD: Blackstone beats Concord

Illustration of a pencil writing sheet music with dollar and cents symbols

Go deeper in our full database in the Axios Pro Deals Tracker.

• Screaming Eagle Acquisition (Nasdaq: SCRM) shareholders approved the $4.6b acquisition of the Starz studio business from Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF). axios.link/4dtouvx

• MSP Sports Capital is weighing a takeover offer for Premier League club Everton FC, whose existing deal with 777 Partners is in trouble, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4dAO29Z

• Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery will bundle their streaming services Disney+, Hulu and Max starting this summer. axios.link/3JRqDn0

• League One Volleyball, a youth volleyball league that's launching a professional U.S. league this year, and ESPN signed a media rights deal. axios.link/4adE5wt

3. Deal flow

• Leslie Jones will rejoin NBCUniversal's Olympic coverage for the 2024 Paris games. axios.link/4bwv7LE

4. Movin' on up (or out)

🪓 Sony and Apollo's plan for Paramount: Break it up (NYT)

"A breakup of Paramount is not a preferred outcome for Ms. [Shari] Redstone, who would prefer the company to pass on to another buyer intact, a person familiar with her thinking said. But it wouldn't necessarily be a dealbreaker if the offer was compelling, the person said," Benjamin Mullin and Lauren Hirsch report.

😡 Apple's hydraulic-press iPad ad ticks off creators (Axios)

"Creative professionals and artists — one of Apple's key constituencies — already fear AI's impact on their jobs and our culture. The ad, many felt, made the company look both callous and brutal," Scott Rosenberg writes.

👀 Refinery29's new owner plans to cover sports, buy more media companies (WSJ)

"Sundial Group of Cos. created a new holding company that will be led by [ex-WPP] Kirk McDonald. ... [Chairman Richelieu] Dennis said the new holding company, Sundial Media, would look to buy publications that drive the cultural conversation, and identified sports as an area of interest," Alexandra Bruell reports.

5. Channel surfing

Illustration of a remote control in the shape of a surfboard leaning against a VW bus.

🤝 Situational awareness: Vice Media will create a JV with Savage Ventures to relaunch its digital properties, including Vice.com, Sara Fischer exclusively reports.

@tim_bays: "Welcome to Wrexham" Season 3 on FX — although I already know how it ends. 

@kerrymflynn: Sean Paul at Brooklyn Paramount. Last saw him in 2018 at Kings Theater. Excited for the reunion and to experience this new venue!

✏️ Thanks to George Moriarty for editing and Katie Lewis for copy editing this newsletter.

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May 09, 2024

1 big thing: TMB CEO Bonnie Kintzer chats pivots