The sale of Entrepreneur Media, Irvine owner of entrepreneur.com and Entrepreneur 
magazine, has fallen victim to a tough borrowing climate, owner Peter Shea said this afternoon.
PaidContent a media Web site, had reported in June that Austin Ventures in Texas and an unnamed Boston private equity firm were buying Entrepreneur for less than the $200 million asking price and the deal would close in July.
The parties had agreed on a price, Shea acknowledged, but the buyers couldn’t borrow the money at a reasonable interest rate and price.
“Mainly, the debt market for these funds is difficult right now,” Shea said. “A year and a half ago they could have borrowed eight times (earnings before taxes, depreciation and amortization - a measure of cash flow); today they’re lucky to get four times.”
He told the company’s 100 employees in a memo Thursday that he wouldn’t sell the company.
He said in a phone interview later that the company will remain in Irvine.
“We’re not in trouble. We have had no debt for five years,” he said. ‘We’re nicely profitable in a very difficult market. We will continue to move along with our new editor in chief.”
The company recently hired Amy Cosper as vice president and editor in chief to replace long-time editorial director Rieva Lesonsky.
Cosper has worked for Satellite Broadband magazine, Intertec Publishing and Argus Integrated Media.
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More layoffs and Entrepreneur just happend, after few weeks when Peter Shea announced that the sale fell through and guaranteed his employees that everything is good because the company had been making $$$. They layoff some of their top people. I think the magazine should move to China, because it lies to it’s workers like The Chinese did about child singers and now its gymnast.
If you look back to the comments from months ago–the company started falling apart when the owner’s son started taking control. Of course since he’s become publisher, magazine ad sales have plummeted.
After the layoffs today the new editor told her remaining staff that the layoffs were due to “financial reasons” and that the “magazine is shrinking–it’s all going online.:
The company is mismanaged. No wonder the deal fell through.