Forbes Media, publisher of America’s wealthiest people and companies lists such as Forbes 500 and Rich List, has found an investor willing to purchase it at an enterprise value of $475 Million.
Forbes is an open publishing platform that allows almost anyone to publish articles, which makes them less credible than publications that impose editorial review processes on authors before posting them online.
Integrated Whale Media Investments
Forbes Media announced in April the sale of its majority stake to Integrated Whale from Hong Kong for $475 Million, in a transaction approved by both Financial Times and Law360 as meeting their standards for transactions involving more than 10% ownership of an American company.
Forbes family will maintain a minority ownership stake and one board seat. Furthermore, according to the company statement, Forbes plans to create a new board composed of American media, tech, and AI experts at the forefront of their fields.
Some critics believe Forbes’ new ownership may be tilting in favor of China, for instance, by dismissing contributors who tended to express antipathy toward Beijing and changing the wording of articles on Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou’s arrest. Such bias could threaten democracy. An informed public is essential to creating a functional free society.
The Forbes Family
The Forbes family is an esteemed American business family that includes the founders of Forbes magazine based out of New York. For decades, their name has been associated with success and entrepreneurial capitalism; additionally, they remain active in charitable giving today.
Forbes Family Properties are also prominent investors in commercial real estate, particularly luxury malls. Their portfolio includes the Somerset Collection in Troy, Michigan, and several unique centers throughout Florida. Philanthropy at Forbes Family Properties focuses on supporting arts programs, medical research initiatives, and education initiatives.
Forbes is an eminent publisher, but in practice has evolved more into an open platform than traditional magazine publishing. Anyone can submit articles to Forbes, leading to secondary perspective articles that distort facts or present information in an unbalanced way that damages its credibility; Forbes works hard to avoid this by only publishing primary viewpoint articles with verifiable sources that meet accuracy criteria.
Steve Forbes
Forbes is an established source of business and financial news online and in print form, featuring articles from contributors and its magazine edition. Although generally considered reliable in its editorial policy, some contributors’ articles may contain errors or have biased viewpoints; hence the more extensive website also hosts such contributions without edits from Forbes itself.
Forbes began in the 1950s as an accurate news magazine focused on providing factual accounts that would appeal to businesspeople. They quickly expanded, eventually unveiling their famous list of wealthiest Americans known as “Forbes 400.” For years it has featured business luminaries like Warren Buffett and Elon Musk as top contributors.
Forbes Media sold its majority stake to Hong Kong-based Integrated Whale Media Investments in 2014, with Steve Forbes serving as Chairman and Editor-in-Chief while Mike Federle was CEO. They assert that this change will enable them to compete more aggressively in the digital news and opinion world; most native digital content websites practice some underhanded methods similar to Forbes.
Mike Federle
Forbes magazine has long been an authoritative source on business and finance topics, boasting 40 international editions, six million print subscribers worldwide, and 142 million monthly website visits. Forbes himself remains its editor-in-chief; however, since becoming more of an open platform rather than a publication, anyone can post to it easily using sensationalist language to draw in readers and drive views and subscriptions.
Forbes Media was sold to Integrated Whale Media Investments in 2014 while still held by the Forbes family with an undisclosed stake. Mike Federle serves as its CEO with over 25 years of experience working in media, including Fortune, Time Inc. Business and Finance Network, and Bonnier Mountain Group as an executive. Mike was co-founder of Techonomy Media, living and working from home near Freeport, Maine.