Luminar founder and CEO Austin Russell's proposed acquisition of Forbes Global Media Holdings has closed. Integrated Whale Media Investments, the Hong Kong-based parent company of Forbes, terminated its contract with Mr. Russell after he was unable to secure the ideal group of investors needed to close the deal.
Bloomberg first reported the news, citing an internal memo from Forbes CEO Mike Federle.
A statement provided by Austin Russell's family office said: “The acquisition of Forbes magazine was all about impact and furthering the next generation of capitalism's philosophy of business for good and philanthropy.” it is written like this. “At this point, it has been determined that it is in the best interests of both parties to terminate the agreement. We wish the team at Forbes the best of luck.”
Russell, the 28-year-old founder and tech star, announced plans in May to buy an 82% stake in Forbes Global Media Holdings, valuing the company at about $800 million. becomes. Although the plan was initially successful, it attracted many investors who supported the acquisition. The deal was scheduled to close on Nov. 1, but fell through after Indian investment firm Sun Group and others failed to remit contractually obligated funds, Axios reported earlier this month. Sun Group vice chairman Shiv Khemka has reportedly committed to investing $300 million in the acquisition.
Russell was granted an extension and has spent the past two weeks covering the multi-million dollar shortfall. Another problem is that the latest agreement sent to Russell's team included conditions for investor groups that were deemed unacceptable, according to people familiar with the deal.
Forbes, the media company perhaps best known for its magazines and lists ranking billionaires, sold 95% of the company to Integrated Whale Media in 2014. Forbes Media had planned to go public through a merger with special purpose acquisition company Magnum Opus Acquisition Ltd. However, the agreement was canceled in June 2022.
Forbes has since been put up for sale. Russell, who Forbes himself described as the world's youngest self-made billionaire in 2021, was the latest example of a tech mogul getting into the media business. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post in 2013, and Salesforce chairman, CEO and co-founder Marc Benioff, along with his wife Lynne Benioff, bought the parent company in 2018. It acquired Time from Meredith Corporation for $190 million in cash. More recently, it was acquired by Elon Musk. A noisy deal with Twitter saw the social media site change its name to His X.
