(Bloomberg) — Independent Digital News & Media Ltd., owner of Britain’s Independent news website, is discussing a range of M&A options from consolidation with other media businesses to ecommerce acquisitions.
The potential deals would cement the former newspaper’s transformation into a digital media business after it stopped printing in 2016 to slash costs.
In an interview with Bloomberg News, Chairman John Paton said the Independent has held conversations with other media companies about consolidation-style deals, but declined to give further details. The U.K. news brand is also considering takeovers which could add new kinds of content or widen the Independent’s geographical footprint.
“To give you a range of two that we’re currently looking at, one is around the 10 million pounds ($13.6 million) mark, which is in the technology space, and there’s one that would be considerably more than that by a multiple factor, that would be in a content space,” Paton said. A technology deal may center around ecommerce platforms or sites.
The Independent’s top shareholder is Russian-British businessman Evgeny Lebedev, who Prime Minister Boris Johnson made a lifetime member of the U.K.’s upper legislature, the House of Lords. Lebedev also owns the Evening Standard, a London newspaper.
In the year to Oct. 3 2021, its operating profits more than doubled to 5.5 million pounds, while revenue increased 36% to 41.2 million pounds, the Independent said in a results statement which it expects will be published this week.
To cut the Independent’s reliance on online advertising, which is vulnerable to economic cycles and Big Tech’s algorithm changes, Paton is diversifying its income. Like British news group Reach Plc, the Independent site now encourages users to register, which gives the company first-hand customer information to fuel marketing. And similar to specialist publisher-turned-ecommerce business Future Plc, the site takes readers closer to purchases so it can win affiliate marketing income.
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