Specialist magazine publisher Future has become the latest business to emerge as a possible buyer for BBC’s portfolio of magazines, according to a report this morning.
The publisher has been ‘actively involved’in the sales process but it remained far from clear if the company would table a formal bid, The Guardian reported.
Reports variously suggested earlier this week the BBC had narrowed its search to two companies with Bauer leading the way, while another said Bauer and H Bauer were considering a partnership bid for the corporation’s magazine business.
Executives at BBC Magazines said last week that after a huge amount of interest it had been talking to a number of parties and it hoped to complete the sale process by the summer.
This latest development in the move to sell off the BBC’s magazines comes little over a month after a report suggested that the commercial wing of the corporation was planning to retain ownership and control over a number of leading titles.
Last year, it was understood that the corporation’s preferred course of action was to sell its magazine business to a single publisher by forming a new business with the partner organisation taking an 85 per cent majority share.
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