After failing to be sold itself, Reed Business Information is now selling TWgroup, its travel publishing unit including Travel Weekly, Gazetteers.com, Travolution, the Globe Travel Awards and associated websites and events.
The group is going to Holiday Autos founder Clive Jacobs (yes, a car hire businessman is buying a travel publisher) for an undisclosed sum. He is now forming TW Group Ltd to hold the assets.
Travel Weekly’s own story says former TWgroup publishing director Simon Ferguson, who left RBI after six years in March, is in the deal, too, and will be CEO. Ariadne Capital M&A director Ian Findlay, travel consultant Michael East and former RBI, NatMags, Future and Emap consultant Colin Morrison are non-exec directors; it’s unclear whether investment came from them.
RBI division MD Jane Burgess (via TW): “It will mean investment and expansion for what are strong brands and businesses, with great teams, at a time when we [RBI], inevitably, have competing priorities for our own investment funds.” RBI cut 35 jobs in January and a further 50 in April.