Congratulations to Woody Pastorius and the team at Mywedding.com on the sale to Meredith Corporation

DES MOINES, Iowa and NEW YORK, Nov. 17, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Meredith Corporation (NYSE: MDP; www.meredith.com), the leading media and marketing company serving American women, announced today that it has agreed to purchase Mywedding.com, further extending Meredith's reach to millennial women and the Company's presence in the $53 billion American wedding marketplace.

Mywedding.com, one of the top five wedding websites in the U.S., provides couples with the complete wedding planning product suite. With free planning tools, inspiration-focused content and a search experience designed to connect couples with local, national and international wedding professionals and venues, mywedding.com empowers couples to create a wedding that perfectly encompasses their unique style and budget.  The site offers advertisers exposure and connection to motivated millennial consumers at a pivotal life stage.  

The purchase of mywedding.com follows Meredith's recently announced agreement with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (NYSE: MSO), which includes the operations of the popular Martha Stewart Weddings magazine and website. Martha Stewart Weddings is a leading bridal magazine on newsstands and also a top digital wedding destination. 

The combination creates one of the largest audiences in the wedding media marketplace.  It gives Meredith access to millennial consumers at the earliest stages of family formation, complementing existing Meredith brands such as Fitness, American Baby, Parents and Allrecipes.  It further solidifies Meredith's position as the nation's leading media company focused on home and family. 

"With its access to younger consumers at such an important time in their lives, strong local sales model, and digital expertise, mywedding.com is a valuable addition to our portfolio," said Meredith National Media Group President Tom Harty.  "We believe we can further grow mywedding.com's consumer audience, while at the same time developing the next generation of consumers for Meredith brands and creating new sales and marketing opportunities for our clients."

There are over 2 million weddings in the United States annually, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.  Three-quarters of couples use online resources to plan their weddings, and spending on weddings totaled more than $53 billion in 2013. 

"We continue to strengthen our focus on the most important milestones in the lives of our consumers, specifically marriage, home ownership and raising a family," said Meredith Chairman and CEO Steve Lacy.  "This acquisition augments our initiatives in the digital space, and is consistent with our Total Shareholder Return strategy to pursue investments that scale our business and increase shareholder value."

Said mywedding.com President and CEO Woody Pastorius, "Mywedding.com is designed to meet the ever-evolving needs of the millennial couple, and through customized content and marketing programs we have successfully created a digital environment that connects this audience with relevant local and national providers. Meredith is the perfect home for us, and we are delighted to join with them to grow the mywedding.com brand."

Mywedding.com is the latest in a series of acquisitions, launches and alliances for Meredith's National Media Group.  Last month, Meredith announced a 10-year licensing agreement with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (NYSE: MSO) to acquire the rights to Martha Stewart Living, Martha Stewart Weddings and www.marthastewart.com.  In November 2013, Meredith launched the award-winning Allrecipes magazine, which followed the acquisition of allrecipes.com in March 2012.  

Additionally, over the last three years, Meredith has acquired the Eating Well, Family Fun, Every Day with Rachael Ray, Parenting and Baby Talk brands.  In spring of 2015, Meredith plans to launch Parents Latina, an English-language magazine with a ratebase of 700,000 targeting millennial Hispanic moms.

Meredith has also been executing a strategy to expand its broadcast television footprint.  In the last year Meredith's Local Media Group has completed or announced the acquisition of television stations in Phoenix, St. Louis, Mobile-Pensacola and Springfield (Mass).

"We continue to look for strategic acquisitions, partnerships and investment opportunities like these to expand our reach and create additional shareholder value," said Meredith Chief Development Officer John Zieser. 

The acquisition of mywedding.com will not have a material effect on Meredith's fiscal 2015 second quarter financial performance.  Meredith will provide more detail when it reports its fiscal 2015 second quarter results in January 2015.

ABOUT MEREDITH CORPORATION

Meredith Corporation (NYSE: MDP; www.meredith.com) has been committed to service journalism for more than 110 years.  Today, Meredith uses multiple distribution platforms – including broadcast television, print, digital, mobile, tablets and video – to provide consumers with content they desire and to deliver the messages of its advertising and marketing partners.

Meredith's National Media Group reaches an audience of over 200 million monthly, including 100 million unduplicated women and 60 percent of American millennial women.  Meredith is the leader in creating content across media platforms in key consumer interest areas such as food, home, parenthood and health through well-known brands such as Better Homes and Gardens, Parents and Allrecipes.  The National Media Group features robust brand licensing activities, including over 3,000 SKUs of branded products at 4,000 Walmart stores across the U.S.  Meredith Xcelerated Marketing is a leader at developing and delivering custom content and customer relationship marketing programs for many of the world's top brands.

Meredith's Local Media Group includes 17 owned or operated television stations reaching more than 10 percent of U.S. households.  Meredith's portfolio is concentrated in large, fast-growing markets, with seven stations in the nation's Top 25 – including Atlanta, Phoenix and Portland – and 14 in Top 60 markets.

Meredith's balanced portfolio consistently generates substantial free cash flow, and Meredith is committed to growing Total Shareholder Return through dividend payments, share repurchases and strategic business investments.  Meredith's current annualized dividend of $1.73 per share yields approximately 4 percent.  Meredith has paid a dividend for 67 straight years and increased it for 21 consecutive years.

Congratulations to Mike McCurdie and the team at SafeBuilt on the recapitalization with Riverside Co.

Congratulations to Mike McCurdie and the team at SafeBuilt on the recapitalization with Riverside Co.

Riverside Backs SAFEbuilt - Provider of Community Development Services

(c) 2014 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. 

 

Riverside Co . said it invested in SAFEbuilt LLC, which provides community development services for local governments and public entities, primarily those looking to privatize public services.

 

Established in 1992 and based in Loveland, Colo., SAFEbuilt offers services such as building department programs, planning and zoning, code enforcement and other administrative functions. Its affiliate company, Meritage Systems, provides workflow and operational support software for municipal building departments, Riverside said in a news release.

The Cleveland firm, which didn't disclose the terms of the transaction in the release, said the investment was made from its microcap fund.

The latest such vehicle, Riverside Micro-Cap Fund III LP, closed with $350 million in July and targets U.S. companies generating up to $5 million in annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

Commercial finance firm MidCap Financial LLC provided financing for the transaction. Riverside was advised by law firm Jones Day.
 

Brad Resnick, a Riverside vice president based in New York, said the SAFEbuilt investment was made on the thesis that local or municipal governments are increasingly turning to private companies for staffing assistance."Flexibility is a big reason," he said. "Another is that demand, especially for smaller communities, fluctuates pretty dramatically between the peak and trough seasons. If the governments are using all in-house staff, it can pose a challenge to efficient staffing, as they may have idle staff in [the] slow season."

 

SAFEbuilt works with more than 200 partner communities throughout the U.S.

Mr. Resnick said the company has expanded in geographic clusters, allowing swift and efficient deployment of manpower as it "can pull resources from neighboring communities if necessary to level the workload over a series of clients."

 

Riverside said it would work with SAFEbuilt's management team to enhance the company's sales and marketing approach, allowing for faster expansion in new and existing regions as well as deeper client relationships through both acquisitions and organic growth.

 

Without giving specifics to the geographies that SAFEbuillt is targeting for expansion, Mr. Resnick said the company is interested in markets where there is a higher level of growth and construction activity as well as stricter enforcement of building codes.

"Those markets with stricter codes are in general more receptive and can benefit more from our service," he said. "It is a focus of the community to make sure that the buildings and the code requirements be enforced, and it may affect resources involved in and around the permitting process of a particular community or municipality."

Riverside invests in business services, consumer brands, education and training, energy, health care and software and information technology. For buyout opportunities, it invests in companies valued at up to $250 million.