News Corp is looking at more acqusiitions, announcing a capital raise of $US750 million in a private debt offering.
The media group last month bought the books segment of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for $US349 million and then paid $275 million for Investor's Business Daily.
News Corp plans to use the net proceeds from the debt offering for general corporate purposes, which may include acquisitions and working capital.
The debt will be in the form of senior notes due in 2029, subject to market and other conditions.
The acqusitions so far have been for two profitable divsiions, financial news publisher Dow Jones and books.
Investor’s Business Daily is financial news and research business whose website has 100,000 digital subscribers. It will be operated by Dow Jones.
HMH Books and Media will sit within News Corp’s publishing business HarperCollins, expanding it by more than 7,000 titles.
News Corp says backlists, older books which are still in print, are a “sustainable and growing” source of revenues, high margins and cash flow for publishers.
Last year more than 60% of HMH Books and Media revenues were generated by its backlist which include titles such as The Lord of the Rings trilogy, 1984 and All the King’s Men.
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