Future, the Bath-based global platform for specialist media, has maintained its frenetic growth by acquiring another 12 titles, including The Week and Science & Nature.
The firm said the £300m takeover of magazine publisher Dennis would expand its reach in the US, build revenues and deepen its presence in the wealth, knowledge and B2B publishing markets.
Future, which has pursued an often dizzying but highly successful buy-and-build policy over the past seven years, said this latest acquisition was expected to be “materially earnings enhancing” in the first full year of ownership.
The cost of the Dennis deal is second only to Future’s £594m acquisition of GoCo, the firm behind Go Compare insurance, last November.
That came hot on the heels of its £140m takeover of TI Media, which added 40 titles including Horse & Hound, Woman & Home and Wallpaper, to Future’s portfolio.
The Dennis deal also adds the MoneyWeek and Kiplinger financial titles, which Future said would “provide a highly complementary and scale presence in ‘wealth’ vertical in the US and UK, enhancing the its ability to broaden its monetisation channels”.
It will also be able to leverage its technology platforms for advertising and eCommerce and centres of excellence to the acquired brands.
The addition of the Dennis titles The Week UK, The Week US, The Week Junior UK, The Week Junior US and Science & Nature will add more than 700,000 subscribers and enhance its ‘knowledge’ vertical, it said.
It will also further extend Future’s already strong reach in North American, where its existing brands currently reach one-in-three people online. Around 56% of Dennis’s revenues are generated in the US.
Dennis grew its year-on-year earnings by 14% to £20m in 2020 on revenues up 12% to £104.8m. Its growth has continued this year with revenues up 16% in the 12 months to the end of June.
Future CEO Zillah Byng-Thorne, pictured, said: “I am delighted to announce the acquisition of a high-quality portfolio of Dennis’ trusted brands that will accelerate our strategy, enhance our content capabilities and bring additional geographical and vertical revenue diversification, whilst materially increasing the proportion of recurring revenues across the group.
“The materially earnings enhancing acquisition is highly complementary to our longstanding US-first mindset and provides an attractive opportunity to scale our recently created ‘wealth’ vertical, whilst diversifying our presence in our ‘knowledge’ and ‘B2B Pro Technology’ verticals.
“I look forward to welcoming our new colleagues to Future, and to continuing the successful execution of our strategy to generate long-term sustainable growth and attractive returns for our shareholders.”
Future bought Dennis from Exponent, the private equity firm that acquired it in 2018 from the estate of founder Felix Dennis.
The sale to Future did not include Dennis titles Viz, Fortean Times, Cyclist and Expert Reviews, will be retained by Broadleaf Group, the holding company of Autovia which separated from Dennis earlier this year.
