26 August 2021

FUTURE ACQUIRES DENNIS TITLES

Future has concluded a £300m deal to buy most of the Dennis Publishing business.

Dennis was acquired by private equity house Exponent three years ago

The business spun off its automotive brands and ecommerce sites into a separate venture, Autovia, earlier this year.

Future is acquiring the £104m turnover Dennis division that includes The Week UK and US, The Week Junior UK and US, MoneyWeekKiplingerScience & NatureComputer Active, PC Pro, Minecraft World, Coach and ITPro

Some 56% of sales at the operation come from the US, and 75% of sales are subscription based. The Week family of titles and Science & Nature will add over 700,000 subscribers to the Future business.

The operation had EBITDA of £20m last year. 

Future CEO Zillah Byng-Thorne, said the Dennis buy was part of the group’s longstanding “US first” mindset and would boost its subscription know-how.

"I am delighted to announce the acquisition of a high-quality portfolio of Dennis' trusted brands that will accelerate our strategy, enhance our content capabilities and bring additional geographical and vertical revenue diversification, whilst materially increasing the proportion of recurring revenues across the group,” she said.