David Montgomery’s venture capital-backed bid for SMG’s Herald and Sunday Herald publishing business is understood to be out of the running, possibly because the tabled offer was too low.
A number of groups are still in the auction process for the business, from which SMG is hoping to realise around £200 million, although analysts think that this is somewhat optimistic given the market conditions (see Publishing Giants To Compete For SMG Titles).
The division, which went up for sale a month ago (see SMG To Sell Publishing And Online Business), includes the Herald group of titles and eleven business to business and specialist consumer magazines.