The Arena Group Acquires Parade Magazine's Publisher: What You Need To Know

TheMaven Inc. MVEN, a digital publishing company operated under the brand The Arena Group, is acquiring AMG/Parade, the multimedia content company best known as the publisher of the weekly Parade magazine.

What Happened: The companies did not announce the financial aspects of the transaction, although Axios is reporting the acquisition is a $16-million cash and stock deal.

Parade, which was founded in 1941, is distributed in hundreds of Sunday newspapers across the country. Athlon Media Group acquired Parade in September 2014 from Parade Media Group LLC for an undisclosed sum and rebranded as AMG/Parade.

In addition to the magazine, AMG/Parade Media Group’s brands include AMG/Parade Sports, AMG/Parade Outdoors, Relish and Spry Living.  

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Why It Happened: The Arena Group, which is best known to stock investors as the owner of TheStreet, stated the AMG/Parade Media Group will anchor a new lifestyle vertical while adding to the sports vertical tied to its Sports Illustrated Media Group.

"AMG/Parade’s properties bring massive reach across print, digital and video that will be the cornerstone of The Arena Group’s new Lifestyle vertical and further bolster our Sports offerings," said Ross Levinsohn, CEO of The Arena Group.

"Parade has been an iconic media brand for 80 years – I read it as a kid in my Sunday paper and always anticipated the annual Parade High School All-American Teams.

“Today, through innovation and perseverance, AMG/Parade continues to deliver robust content experiences to millions of consumers every day across multiple platforms,” Levinsohn added. “Their content and partnerships with newspaper publishers around the country speaks to the trust and value in their brands."

The acquisition comes ahead of TheMaven’s planned corporate reinvention. On Jan. 11, the company filed a Form S1 Registration Statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an uplifting IPO that seeks raise $30 million. After the IPO, the company plans to rename itself as The Arena Group Holdings, with its shares trading on the NYSE under the “AREN” ticker.

Photo: Courtesy of Parade.