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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