The ranks of potential suitors for Forbes Media is growing smaller now that German media giant Axel Springer and Spice Global Investments have reportedly dropped out of the bidding.
One insider, however, said it would not rule out a new mystery buyer from the Far East — since as recently as last week, Asian business executives were trooping into Forbes HQ for meetings.
A spokeswoman for Axel Springer, which publishes the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, told Bloomberg News that it is not involved in any process to acquire Forbes.
The onetime front runner, China’s Fosun International, has broken off talks, while Spice Global, run by Indian-born industrialist Bhupendra Kumar Modi, is also out, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources.
Bloomberg also said that Forbes management might attempt a management buyout.
A Forbes spokewoman said, “Forbes Media declines to comment on rumor or speculation.”
Any potential buyer would have to satisfy Elevation Partners, the investment firm that includes U2 frontman Bono and Silicon Valley investor Roger McNamee. Elevation paid $240 million for a 45 percent interest in Forbes in 2006, giving it status as a preferred stockholder.
The buyer would also have to find a way to satisfy Editor-in-Chief and Chairman Steve Forbes, who is interested in staying involved as a minority investor in the family-run enterprise founded by his grandfather.
Said one former executive, “The problem remains that the brand is not the brand without Steve Forbes, yet any prospective purchaser needs to be able to reposition the brand and it can’t do that while Steve Forbes is there in any significant way.
“And it will take wild horses to drag him away. He takes his family legacy very seriously. For him it is more than just his name above the door,” the former exec added.
He also said, “Any deal isn’t about striking the right valuation; it is about finding the price Elevation will accept to go away without pulling the whole edifice down behind them.”