Enthusiast Media LLC, an entity formed by affiliates of Sandler Capital Management, announced today it has acquired substantially all the assets of the Crafts Group from Primedia for $132 million in cash.
The Crafts Group includes Craftrends and its MemoryTrends Conference & Expo, Creating Keepsakes Magazine and its consumer conventions and educational events, Simple Scrapbooks, Paper Crafts Magazine, Quilters Newsletter Magazine, Quiltmaker, McCall’s Quilting, McCall’s Quick Quilts, Quilter’s Home, Sew News, and Creative Machine Embroidery, as well as all other related events, special issues, and Web sites.
Dave O’Neil, formerly vice president/group publisher for the Primedia Crafts Group, is ceo and Lisa Bearnson, founding editor of Creating Keepsaes, is Creative Director for the scrapbooking side of the business.
“As investors, we are constantly looking for high-quality businesses that can benefit from our industry expertise and financial resources,” explained Michael Marocco, managing director and head of private equity for Sandler Capital. “Based on the Crafts Group’s market leadership across scrapbooking, quilting, and sewing, we believe Enthusiast Media LLC presents an opportunity for value creation.”
Adi Dehejia, Sandler Capital managing director, added, “We believe there are numerous opportunities to grow these market-leading crafts brands, especially in the digital media and online sectors.”
Bearnson said, "I'm excited to take a larger, more creative role with this new company. My goal is to build a grassroots company like the one I originally founded (Creating Keepsakes) where we will be highly responsive to the needs of our readers, manufacturers, and advertisers. Our team has exciting plans that include taking scrapbooking to a new level in both the digital and tactile worlds."
O’Neil said the vision of the media group is to think deeper, not wider. “As the leading information content provider in the craft hobby space, we have a core audience that looks to us to connect them with the latest trends and techniques in their craft niche. The acquisition by Sandler Capital will allow us to be more nimble in creating and responding to market opportunities.”
SOURCE: Craftrends News Headlines
technorati tags: Creating+Keepsakes, Primedia, Simple+Scrapbooks, scrapbooking
