SAN FRANCISCO - PlanetOut Inc., possibly the largest global media and entertainment company serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender market, has retained a New York¬based financial-planning company to help it find a buyer.
According to a statement PlanetOut released earlier this month, Allen & Company LLC will "assist the company in evaluating strategic alternatives," but a PlanetOut representative put that in plainer language for GAYVN: The parent company and its operating units are for sale.
PlanetOut spokespeople did not return phone calls and e-mails seeking further comment, but the prepared statement also noted PlanetOut no longer will provide quarterly or annual earnings guidance and will not host quarterly earnings calls. The company will report its earnings information only through its periodic filings with the Securities Exchange Commission. In addition, it will "not undertake any obligation to make any further announcement or disclosure of any further developments with respect to its evaluation of strategic alternatives."
The virtual communications blackout is an uncommon position for a company that actively has sought the public eye since its original, competing components, Gay.com and PlanetOut.com, were founded in 1994. By 1996, the two independently were rolling in private and public funding, and when they merged four years later, financial pundits proclaimed the resulting entity a new-media juggernaut.
Today PlanetOut's digital and print media brands include Gay.com, PlanetOut.com, The Advocate, Out, The Out Traveler and HIVPlus magazines. In 2007, the company acquired SpecPub Inc. and its print and digital brands Men Magazine, Freshmen, Unzipped, MenMachine, 2 mag and BuyGay.com.
Other brands under the corporate umbrella include the e-commerce website Kleptomaniac and book publisher Alyson Publications.
Based in San Francisco with additional offices in New York and Los Angeles, PlanetOut offers Global 1000 and local advertisers access to what it believes is the most extensive multi-channel, multi-platform network of gay and lesbian people in the world.
GayVN
- By
