Tom.com bags another Taiwan publisher

By Staff and reports

HONG KONG, China -- Hong Kong's tom.com pushed ahead with its Taiwan shopping spree, announcing on Tuesday plans to buy the Business Weekly group for up to $48 million.

Tom.com said it would become Taiwan's largest publishing group through the deal, which includes the best-selling Business Weekly magazine that boasts an average circulation of more than 100,000 per issue.

Launched as a Net portal by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-Shing, tom.com has been on a traditional media buying binge in Taiwan, easing its transformation from a pure-play dotcom to a serious publishing house.

Big media dreams

"With Business Weekly joining us, our aim of becoming the largest print media group in Greater China is one step closer," said tom.com chief executive officer Sing Wang.

The Hong Kong media group will pay half of the purchase price in cash and the remainder in stock.

The number and total value of shares will be tied to Business Weekly's profitability and whether tom.com gives the nod to buy a group of the firm's subsidiaries.

The deal includes Business Weekly subsidiaries Nong Nong Magazine, a publisher of lifestyle titles, as well as Business World Consulting, a publisher that targets corporate clients.

Tom.com said it also has the option to buy Business Weekly's four other units, which it would only do as a whole, depending on 2002 financial results.

Growing empire

Combined with the properties it agreed to buy on Tuesday, tom.com said its print media empire would have 40 titles in Taiwan. Thoose titles had a total circulation of more than 28 million copies last year.

Tom.com last month paid $10.9 million for Taiwan teen magazine and book publisher Sharp Point Publishing.

It also spent about $40 million to form a joint venture with Taiwan-based publishers PC Home and Cite Publishing earlier this year.

Industry observers have marveled at tom.com's ability to buck the dotcom bust, morphing itself away from an over-hyped dotcom vehicle.

"They had nothing," said one Hong Kong-based Internet analyst. "All they had was very expensive shares, but they have leveraged those shares to buy tangible assets."

"And that's a positive for the company."

Reuters contributed to this report.