Has BBC finally made up its mind on selling a stake in Lonely Planet, post Google-Frommers?
Skift Take
The world's largest publisher of English-language guidebooks and one of the most trusted brands in travel would be a prize to any buyer who didn't purchase it in 2007 and wasn't part of a national broadcast empire in the middle of an identity crisis and mired in political scandal.
Please see important disclosures at the end the story.
BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of BBC, is considering selling travel guidebook publisher Lonely Planet and is open to arrangements including partial stake sale to a strategic investor. This much was reported as "news" by Guardian earlier today.
Our understanding is that BBC has been open for the last two years to bringing on a strategic investor in the company it bought in 2007, but was not open to a full sale. The potential partner would be someone that would either bring in loads of traffic to the digital efforts of LP or have substantial travel industry expertise that would help LP in product and distribution, while the parent would retain the print book and rights to the brand.
Having bought 75% of Lonely Planet at the height of the bubble in 2007 for an inflated price of about $143 million, and the rest in February of
