VNU is buying BPI Communications LP, which is owned by investment firm Boston Ventures, the company's management and The New York Times Co., which held 33 percent of BPI through acquisition last September of Affiliated Publications Inc., owner of the Boston Globe.
Publishing-industry analysts said the acquisition brings VNU into the U.S. magazine market and gives it a base for further expansion. In addition, BPI's electronic databases, including Entertainment News Wire, fit well with those of VNU. The Dutch company's only presence in the U.S. until now had been its three electronic databases, including a financial data service called Disclosure Inc.
VNU said its new property is profitable, with annual sales of about $130 million and 800 employees. BPI publishes a total of 19 trade and special publications. The acquisition was orchestrated by VNU board member Rob Van den Berg, who will become chief executive of VNU's U.S. operations next month.
Analysts estimate U.S. revenues for the three VNU databases at $160 million a year.
VNU said it will finance the purchase by issuing new shares on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange in March.
For years considered the lesser of the two major Hollywood trade papers, the Hollywood Reporter has been gaining in influence in recent years. While Daily Variety has been cutting its staff, the Reporter has been hiring influential Variety reporters, including A.D. Murphy, and becoming a must-read for entertainment executives.
Though Daily Variety's circulation of 24,029 still exceeds the Reporter's 21,817, Variety's international edition has been sinking, to about 30,000 from more than 50,000 in the 1970s. The Reporter's weekly international edition, meanwhile, has grown steadily in recent years, to 28,583.
VNU's acquisition highlights the shift in ownership in the entertainment world. Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Music Group is the last major U.S. record company. The Columbia, Tri-Star and Universal studios are owned by the Japanese, while the French control MGM. Now the two leading trade papers in the moviemaking community are owned by overseas multinationals.
"It is no longer fair to say U.S. producers alone are benefiting from these products," said David Colden, an entertainment analyst with Los Angeles-based Weismann Wolff.
