Hungry Minds to be Acquired by John Wiley

Posted on August 15, 2001

William J. Pesce, President and Chief Executive Officer of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., announced that the company has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Hungry Minds, Inc., the publisher of the For Dummies series, the technological Bible and Visual series, Frommer's travel guides, CliffsNotes and Webster's New World Dictionary. Wiley has agreed to pay an aggregate consideration of $182.5 million, consisting of $90 million for the fully diluted equity of Hungry Minds and an estimated $92.5 million of HMIN's outstanding funded debt that Wiley will pay or assume at closing.

``The long-term value of Hungry Minds' world-renowned brands makes this a unique opportunity to build on our proven track record with acquisitions and exploit our strong global position,'' said Mr. Pesce. ``The acquisition of HMIN is an excellent opportunity to accelerate Wiley's revenue and earnings growth and enhance our competitive position in the professional/trade market,'' he continued.

John Kilcullen, Chairman and CEO of Hungry Minds, said, ``Over the last eleven years we have built the leading portfolio of knowledge brands in the publishing industry. Wiley is a company whose longstanding and distinguished publishing tradition makes it an ideal home for our brands, customers, employees, and all business partners.''

Hungry Minds has brands in both the consumer and technology areas, such as For Dummies, Betty Crocker, Bible, CliffsNotes, Frommer's, the Unofficial Guide, Visual, Weight Watchers, and Webster's New World. Hungry Minds also owns the websites CliffsNotes.com, dummies.com, and frommers.com. The acquisition will boost Wiley's professional/trade business, which generated nearly one-third of the company's 2001 revenues. Wiley's professional/trade business publishes annually about 750 new and revised books and electronic products and services in computers, business, accounting, psychology, architecture/engineering, general interest, culinary arts, health, non-profit sector management, and other subject areas.