DES MOINES, Iowa and NEW YORK, March 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Meredith Corporation (NYSE:MDP; www.meredith.com) and The Reader's Digest Association Inc. announced today that they have closed on the transaction for Meredith to acquire Allrecipes.com, the world's No. 1 digital food brand.
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The acquisition of Allrecipes.com places Meredith first in comScore's Food Community rankings, and more than doubles the audience for the Meredith Women's Network. In total, Meredith can now offer advertisers and marketers access to more than 100 million unduplicated American women across all media platforms.
"Allrecipes.com is a perfect complement to our digital platform, greatly expanding our audience and giving us the ability to connect our advertising clients with highly desirable consumers," said Meredith Chairman and CEO Steve Lacy. "Allrecipes.com will drive incremental revenue and profit growth and add to our already strong free cash flow over time."
The transaction is valued at $175 million. Meredith plans to invest in Allrecipes.com to optimize the site for today's growing online and mobile audiences. This investment spending, along with normal business seasonality, is expected to make the acquisition slightly dilutive to Meredith's fiscal 2012 full-year financial performance. Meredith expects the acquisition will be modestly accretive to earnings per share and free cash flow in fiscal 2013. Meredith has financed the transaction by securing private placement notes with an average weighted interest rate of 2.94 percent.
ABOUT MEREDITH CORPORATION
Meredith Corporation (NYSE: MDP; www.meredith.com) is the leading media and marketing company serving American women. Meredith features multiple well-known national brands – including Better Homes and Gardens, Parents, Family Circle, Allrecipes.com, Ladies' Home Journal, Fitness, More, American Baby, Every Day with Rachael Ray and FamilyFun – along with local television brands in fast-growing markets. Additionally, Meredith Xcelerated Marketing creates powerful custom marketing solutions for many of the nation's top brands and companies.