ZIFF Davis, which plunged off the bankruptcy cliff in March with a voluntary Chapter 11 filing, is now emerging after working out an agreement with more than 80 percent of its creditors.
It has been a dizzying ride for the tech publishing company, which was founded by William Ziff Sr., passed down to William Ziff Jr. and then, when the third generation of Ziff kids decided to go into hedge funds instead of publishing, was sold off to Japanese media company Softbank for over $2 billion in the mid-1990s.
The company in April 2000 was sold to Willis Stein & Partners for $780 million – which at the time, just before the Internet bubble burst, looked like a steal.
The company forced out CEO Jim Dunning, who tried to bust up the company and sell off pieces.
Nasty lawsuits ensued with Willis Stein claiming that Dunning was a lackluster boss who made no sales calls, didn’t understand the tech market and built an expensive cigar lounge in the corporate headquarters as the economy was showing its first signs of problems.
Dunning, for his part, claimed he was acting as a corporate rainmaker and that Ziff Davis was in breach of contract. That suit was settled out of court.
The company sold off its Enterprise Group in 2007 for $150 million, but it was not enough to keep the wolves from the door.
In its court filings the company said that from 2001 to 2007, its advertising revenue plunged to $40 million from $215 million, while total revenue in the period dropped to $76 million from $300 million.
Today, the company still has its one-time flagship PC Magazine and Electronic Gaming magazine and about 15 Web sites.
The company said the plan, which has yet to be approved, will convert over $428 million in “indebtedness” into new company stock along with a loan note of $57.5 million. Willis Stein would then own less than 10 percent of the company.
New CEO Jason Young said, “the plan reflects their confidence in the strength of our business and our ability to unlock the underlying value in the company.”
In a huff
Arianna Huffington claims that she was banished from NBC News shows because her new book, “Right is Wrong,” blasted “Meet the Press” anchor Tim Russert.
Huffington is the force behind the Huffington Post, an influential political Web site where she had started a blog called “Russert Watch.”
Her new book, which is slated to hit later this week carries the sub title, “How the Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded the Constitution and Made Us All Less Safe.”
Aside from being the anchor, Russert is also the managing editor of the show, the Washington Bureau Chief of NBC News and a senior vice president of NBC News.
Huffington dubs him “EZ Pass” Russert because she claims his softball questions give the Washington elite a free wave-through when they appear on his shows. While he may ask a tough opening question, he usually lets his guests dance away from the jabs, she claims.
Sources said that Huffington was at a dinner in the home of Barbara Wal ters on Tuesday night when she heard that word had come down from on high that she no longer appear on NBC or MSNBC, where talk show hosts Keith Olbermann, Joe Scarborough and Dan Abrams were all interested in booking her.
Phil Griffin, senior vice president of NBC News, who would seem to be the main man behind any such edict, insisted, “I haven’t seen the book. I don’t know anything about it.”
He said, “I know some people have issues with her as a guest, but it has nothing to do with the book.”
It probably didn’t help that Huffington had cooperated with a profile on her that aired last Friday on ABC’s “20/20,” and that she is slated to appear on “Good Morning America” tomorrow morning.
Asked if references to “EZ Pass” Russert angered the “Meet the Press” anchor and other NBC executives, Griffin responded, “I don’t think we’re that fragile.”
Calls to Russert were relayed to a network spokeswoman, who did seem to have extensive knowledge that Huffington’s honeymoon was over at NBC for whatever reason.
“At NBC News, we receive countless books from authors and publishers, in hopes that they get on our air,” she said. “Some of them do, many of them do not. This one did not.”
Miley Circus
Controversy continues to swirl around Miley Cyrus over the racy photos that the 15-year-old “Hannah Montana” star made for Vanity Fair, but the story of her life is still going to come out as planned next year.
Disney Publishing Group inked Cyrus, whose show appears on the Disney Channel, to a book deal worth in excess of $1 million only days before the controversy erupted.
A spokeswoman said that the publisher has no plans to alter the schedule, which calls for the book to hit in the spring of 2009.
The Vanity Fair issue with the photos inside hits newsstands in New York City today.
Sunsetting
Now we know why Fred “the Duckslayer” Drasner, the former partner of Mort Zuckerman and co-publisher of the New York Daily News and US News & World Report, hasn’t been returning our calls.
He’s been lost at sea, taking a ’round-the-world cruise with his third wife Lora aboard their yacht Andromeda la Dea.
They were married in 2004 and the journey began shortly thereafter.
Lora captures much of the trip in a new coffee table book titled “Sunsets,” set to be published by the Courage Books imprint of Perseus.
The couple is staging a book party at the Marlborough Gallery tonight from 6 to 9 p.m.