Company description::
December 31, 2003 (Atlanta, Georgia) Atlanta Wine Report, Inc., publisher of The Wine Report, and promoter of the Wine South Festival, announced recently that they have entered into a definitive acquisition agreement with LA Publishing & Media Group, LLC (LAPMG), a publishing and media holding company controlled by Vanquish Acquisition Partners (VAP), a New York based merchant banking firm. The agreement will allow LAPMG to acquire all of the assets of each Atlanta-based company. The transaction is expected to be consummated within the next 30 days.
The Wine Report is a 5 year-old publication specializing in wine, food and travel content for affluent southeast cities. Wine South organizes and sponsors the Wine South Festival, an annual weekend of food, wine and art held in September in Atlanta. 2004 will mark the 5th annual event.
VAP organized LAPMG for the purpose of developing a portfolio of life-style related publishing and media companies serving affluent markets. It recently acquired the assets of Appellation, LLC, a Sonoma, California based company, and publisher of Wine Country Living, a leading regional life-style magazine. Following this recent acquisition by LAPMG, the new publisher of Wine Country Living magazine was renamed Wine Country Living, LLC (WCL). Utilizing resources of LAPMG and VAP, the quality and substance of Wine Country Living has been dramatically improved. This has greatly facilitated the recent expansion efforts of Wine Country Living’s subscriber and advertising base.
“We hope to replicate the recent success that Wine Country Living has had following its acquisition by LAPMG,” said Dan Thompson, Publisher of The Wine Report and President of Wine South. “Not only should our companies greatly benefit from having access to certain resources of LAPMG, and corporate finance expertise of VAP, but also those of WCL. This marks a new era for our publication and events companies. We are most pleased with the opportunity to become a member of the LAPMG family.” added Dan.
Joseph Del Valle, a senior partner at Vanquish Acquisition Partners stated, “We look forward to working directly with, and fully supporting Dan in our combined efforts to expand the subscriber and advertiser base of the company by improving the quality and substance of The Wine Report. We also intend to develop Wine South into one of the major special events in the country,” Del Valle indicated. Dan added that “the initial phase of the post-acquisition initiative intends to include without limitation the use of a glossier format, and a greater quality interior paper stock. Furthermore, the magazine intends to expand its focus by covering other areas, such as culinary and regional travel, on a more in-depth basis, while retaining its identity.”
The Wine Report and Wine South will continue to be based in Atlanta. An announcement confirming the consummation of the proposed acquisition intends to be made at the appropriate time.
With respect to the parties involved, except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this news release are forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expected results.
Contact:
The Wine Report Companies
(678) 985-9494 ext. 102
dthompson@winesimple.com
www.winesimple.com, www.winesouth.com
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