The Petersen Companies to Increase its Portfolio

Posted on December 14, 1998

The Petersen Companies, Inc. announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire six magazines from The Curtco Freedom Group. They are Home Theater, Home Theater Buyer's Guide, Home Theater Interiors, Digital Home Entertainment, Mobile Computing and and Portable Computing Magazines. In addition to the six titles, the acquisition includes the Home Theater Magazine Entertainment Expo and Sale and various websites related to the publications.

On making the announcement, Petersen's Chairman, President and CEO James D. Dunning, Jr. said, "We are excited to add these quality publications to our portfolio which is the largest special interest magazine portfolio in the U.S. Over the last eight months, Petersen has acquired 45 special interest magazines, and as part of our continuing strategy to build our special interest magazine and multimedia portfolio, we will continue to add titles, including trade publications and trade shows." Dunning added, "We believe this acquisition will be accretive to earnings for the company's fiscal year 1999."

Home Theater magazine, a monthly publication, is the leading magazine in the audio/video marketplace. It is exclusively dedicated to the home theater market, covering the latest in audio, video, surround sound, movies and music. Home Theater has an audited circulation of over 100,000.

Mobile Computing, which targets the corporate volume buyers of mobile technology, and Portable Computing, which targets mostly power users and influencers using leading edge mobile products, are both monthly publications.