BBC buys travel bible Lonely Planet
Sydney (dpa) - A majority stake in Australian travel guide publishing company Lonely Planet has been acquired by the commercial arm of the government-owned British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for an undisclosed sum, news reports said Monday.
The privately held business was founded in 1972 by Melbourne couple Tony and Maureen Wheeler.
They told national broadcaster ABC that selling a 75 per cent stake to the BBC would finance expansion and the building of the Lonely Planet brand around the world. They will retain 25 per cent of the company.
"We realized we're obviously no longer just a book publisher," Tony Wheeler said. "As far as the reality of the business is, a lot of it is now digital - our website and other things we do, from photo libraries to TV production. The value of the brand, the value of Lonely Planet is really eventually going to be much more on that side of it."
Lonely Planet publishes about 500 titles. As well as its popular budget travel guides, it puts out specialist travel guides and phrase books. Recently the company began film production through Lonely Planet Television.
"Lonely Planet is a highly respected international brand and a global leader in the provision of travel information," BBC Worldwide chief executive John Smith said in a statement.
"This deal fits well with our strategy to create one of the world's leading content businesses, to grow our portfolio of content brands online and to increase our operations in Australia and America."
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