New York, Feb. 27: China-based Fosum International is reportedly set to buy Forbes and its related digital properties.
The company is said to be in final negotiations with Forbes to announce the deal as early as this week or the next.
Fosum, a closely-held conglomerate which purchased 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza for 725 million dollars, has put the price tag in 250 million dollars range on Forbes, which is reportedly far below the 400 million dollars range that Deutsche Bank expected to fetch.
According to the New York Post, speculation is that Forbes would be on board with a minority stake, keeping up to 20 percent.
Sources have pointed that Steve Forbes would get a Private-equity backer to front the money in order to buy out his three brothers, Timothy, Christopher and Robert, and sister Moira, plus their extended family partners.
Although, it is still undecided if the Forbes family as a bloc would keep a stake or Steve buys them out, it might be the only way for the family members to get any return, because their current partner in Forbes Media, Elevation Partners, holds preferred shares and would get paid first.
