Skift Take
BBC is taking the heat of a £80m loss in the office and very publicly online, which could lead to guide book acquisitions be approached with greater caution in the future. What are your thoughts on the sale?
Today Twitter shook with the official news of BBC selling Lonely Planet to U.S. billionaire Brad Kelley for AUS$75 million (£51.5 million). This is less than the industry followers thought it would sell for when Skift originally broke the story two weeks ago.
Now that the numbers are in and BBC’s £80m loss is official, Twitter is confounded and amused at BBC’s many missteps:
So the BBC paid£130m (A$190m) for Lonely Planet and is now selling it for£51.5m (A$75m)… nice business model there, chaps. — AusBusinessTraveller (@AusBT) March 19, 2013
Isn’t it a little late for the BBC Trust to be asking why BBC Worldwide bought Lonely Planet in the first place? on.ft.com/15lQ5EV — A Edgecliffe-Johnson (@Edgecliffe) March 19, 2013
BBC’s ridiculous investment in Lonely Planet yields large loss. Staff responsible to pay up for their lunacy. Not. telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsby… — Nigel Cameron (@nigelcameron) March 19, 2013
Odd that a tiny company in Nashville with no track record is “better placed to build and invest” in LP than the BBC skift.com/2013/03/19/bre… — Jason Clampet (@jasonclampet) March 19, 2013
Another good example to add to a list of disastrous takeovers: this time BBC over-paying for Lonely Planet telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsby… #buss4 — Jim Riley (@tutor2u) March 19, 2013
“The BBC came under heavy criticism from its own trustees today after selling the Lonely Planet travel guides… fb.me/2eK1bbkqf — AlanW_PoliticsUK (@PoliticsUK1) March 19, 2013
#BBC‘s commercial arm makes £80m LOSS as it sells Lonely Planet. How does pathetic #Patten stay on? bit.ly/XWaAZa
— Richard Christopher (@OhGrasshopper) March 19, 2013
WTF! Extra lonely now. @firstpostin: BBC sells Lonely Planet for $121m loss po.st/VY5H3k — Rohan Sonalkar (@rohansonalkar) March 19, 2013
And yet amidst all of this, Lonely Planet’s official Twitter account has been tweeting its regularly scheduled stream of contest announcements and destination details:
Check out the winner of the latest weekly #lp travel photography competition. This week was the Cobblestone challenge ow.ly/jd73c — Lonely Planet (@lonelyplanet) March 19, 2013
Ireland’s best drives ow.ly/jbLRg #lp #travel with @reidontravel
— Lonely Planet (@lonelyplanet) March 19, 2013
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Tags: bbc, lonely planet, social media