The naming of Jason Young as CEO of Ziff Davis Media so quickly after the July 31st close of the company's acquistion by Insight Venture Parters, reveals they are going to back off of focusing on reselling the company for now. He replace Robert Callahan at the helm, who is now chairman of the company.
Talking to FOLIO, Young stated: “While the sale process has been a very sharp focus over last 12 months, now that becomes less of a focus. The clearer focus is now on operating the business ourselves.”
It seems most deals are starting to head this way, as Virgin Media is also experiencing problems on the market as the credit market continues to dry up.
With Young saying "...my mandate is to grow the business ourselves,” he's saying the market isn't there to go forward with trying to sell the company. The exception would be if a deep-pocketed company wanted to purchase them.
This probably won't be a great deal overall when everything clears. Insight ventures may have to put more money into it, while hoping the credit market turns around sometime in the next few months.
With equity companies not making deals with the long-term in mind, they core expertise isn't creating value over a period of time.
Even if and when they sell Ziff Davis Media, they'll find themselves not making anywhere near what they hoped.
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