By Mark Sweney
BBC WORLDWIDE will pay $67.2 million to buy the 25 per cent of the travel guide publisher Lonely Planet that it does not already own.
Tony and Maureen Wheeler, who co-founded the Australian travel publisher in 1973, have exercised a put option on their remaining stake, as agreed when the deal for the BBC's commercial arm to buy 75 per cent of the company was struck in 2007.
''The put option enabled us to benefit from the Wheelers' experience over the last 3½ years,'' Marcus Arthur, the chairman of Lonely Planet and managing director of BBC Worldwide's brands division, said. ''They have supported Lonely Planet's migration from a traditional book publisher to a multi-platform brand.''
In October 2007 the BBC bought 75 per cent of Lonely Planet for £88.1 million, sparking media complaints that it was going beyond its remit.
BBC Worldwide has expanded the Lonely Planet business significantly, particularly in non-print areas, after poor trading conditions produced a loss of £3.2 million in the year to the end of March 2009.
A strategy to build non-print revenues - digital revenues rose 37 per cent in the 12 months to the end of March 2010 - and spin-off products such as a Lonely Planet magazine has since produced profits of £1.9 million.
Non-print revenues have grown from 9 per cent in 2007 to 22 per cent in the year to March 2010. Its digital presence includes 140 apps and 8.5 million unique users for lonelyplanet.com.
Guardian News & Media