Ziff Davis Media, the Web 1.0-era magazine publisher that should have died years ago, has finally declared bankruptcy. It owes creditors $225 million. They are trading that in for 89 percent of the company and an IOU for $57.5 million. Here’s pretty much all you need to know, from the AP:
The bursting of the Internet bubble hurt publishers like Ziff Davis, which said its print advertising revenue dropped to $40 million last year from $215 million in 2001. Its total revenue fell to $76 million last year from about $300 million in 2001.
The company, which is a remnant of the original Ziff Davis media empire that was bought and sold three times over during the past two decades (to Forstmann Little & Co., Softbank, and current owner private-equity firm Willis & Stein), currently publishes PC Magazine and a couple gaming titles. It also runs 16 Websites, the best of which is 1Up . During the 1990s, it launched a bunch of Internet-related print magazines which no longer exist. Over the past few years, it’s been trying to transition to the Web. (Note that it no longer owns ZDNet, which Cnet bought a long time ago). Although it plans to emerge from bankruptcy intact, for now we are placing Ziff Davis in the deadpool.
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