Letterboxd might soon be added to the New York Times asset register, with the asking price going up to $330m. The delightfully independent Lettterboxd, described as an ‘online social cataloguing service’ for film lovers, was founded in New Zealand 15 years ago. Yet it’s been little secret this year that the owners have been seeking … Letterboxd | New York Times submits $330m for service, in talks
Letterboxd might soon be added to the New York Times asset register, with the asking price going up to $330m.
The delightfully independent Lettterboxd, described as an ‘online social cataloguing service’ for film lovers, was founded in New Zealand 15 years ago. Yet it’s been little secret this year that the owners have been seeking potential buyers for it.
By the end of September, it looked like two different buyers had emerged as frontrunners. Whilst various studios had had a good sniff around, it had narrowed down to A24 and The New York Times. Now it looks like the latter has found itself in pole position.
The price, when the service was first mooted for sale, was said to be in the region of $250m. Now, it’s inched up to $330m as the outlet heads into advanced talks about trying to complete a deal. Given that turnover is a modest $15m a year, the inflated purchase price is indicative of potential growth, and the value of the data that the Letterboxd service brings together. What’s more, where else are you going to find such a concentrated collection of film geeks? Well, apart from here, obviously.
There’s still a fair few hurdles to navigate here to get a deal complete, and even in the New York Times’ own reporting of the deal, it acknowledges that this may all go tits up (it doesn’t use quite that language, but we all know what they mean and want to say.)
A24’s interest ended as the price continued to nudge up, apparently, and the appeal for the New York Times is to integrate its advertising technology into the service.
We’ll keep you posted as and when we hear more of course, but for the minute, it seems that the path is relatively clear for The New York Times to get the deal done. Quite what the impact will be for users of the site remains to be seen…