Immediate Media has announced a £24m deal to buy Future Publishing’s sport and craft titles.
The sport portfolio, which overall is said to receive 4.7m unique users a month, includes Bikeradar.com and Cyclingnews.com, as well as magazines Cycling Plus, Procycling and Mountain Biking UK, which are said to have a combined circulation of more than 100,000.
The craft titles included in the acquisition include Love Patchwork and Quilting, Simply Knitting, Mollie Makes and lifestyle brand The Simple Things.
Immediate’s current portfolio includes titles such as Cardmaking and Papercraft, Craftseller and The World of Cross Stitching.
The deal, which would see around 130 staff transferring between the companies, is set to be complete during the summer subject to shareholder approval.
Immediate CEO Tom Bureau said: “We are delighted to have reached this agreement with Future. Immediate’s strategy is to create the leading special interest content and platform company, and these brands fit with our vision.
“We are developing our business around leading content brands, highly-engaged specialist communities, and multi-platform commercial models.
“Backed by Exponent Private Equity, we have a track record of investing in our brands, around content and platforms, and we are excited to be welcoming the new teams to our company.”
Future CEO Zillah Byng-Maddick said: “These titles are well managed and very successful parts of Future’s portfolio and will continue to thrive under their new owners.
“Their disposal will enable Future to focus on our remaining lead verticals with an emphasis on the growing consumer technology market.
“ I’m pleased that as we say goodbye to colleagues, I’m confident they are moving to an excellent home at Immediate.”
Immediate was formed in November 2011 by the merger of BBC Magazines and digital platform Magicalia.
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