Benzinga | Mar 25, 2021 10:38AM EDT

News Corp To Acquire Investor's Business Daily For $275M

News Corp (NASDAQ: NWS) consented to the acquisition of Investor's Business Daily from O'Neil Capital Management for $275 million.

* The digital-first financial news and research business would be operated by Dow Jones, a News Corp subsidiary.

* Investor's Business Daily (IBD), which operated the Investors.com website, experienced double-digit revenue growth over the past several years, with digital representing over 90% of IBD's revenues and subscriptions.

* The acquisition would expand Dow Jones's offering with the addition of proprietary data and tools for professional and retail investors to help them identify top-performing stocks.

* News Corp would cross-sell and up-sell with Dow Jones financial products as per CEO Robert Thomson. IBD's savvy digital products and journalism would significantly bolster profitability at the Dow Jones segment following Dow Jones and Wall Street Journal's record last quarter profits.

* The deal would serve as a massive boost to News Corp's digital focus. Dow Jones's paywall model had led to robust digital subscription growth. Dow Jones posted the highest quarterly Segment EBITDA since 2007, with traffic across the Dow Jones digital network surging 48% digital subscription growth in the December 31, 2020 quarter.

* News Corp held cash and cash equivalents of $1.6 billion as of December 31, 2020.

* News Corp stock has gained 174% in the last year.

* Price action: NWS shares traded higher by 0.21% at $23.74 on the last check Thursday.