U.S. TV Guide was sold for $1 plus its liabilities

There's a lot of hidden meaning in the term"conditions of the sale were not disclosed". This week, Macrovision "sold" the print edition of the U.S. version of TV Guide magazine, as reported in an earlier post. But, according to a posting on paidContent.org, based on an SEC filing, the price was...$1.

Wow, we knew Macrovision (NSDQ: MVSN) was desperate to get rid of the print version of TV Guide, but didn’t know the extent to which it would go to the liabilities off its books: we reported earlier this week that it was sold to PE firm OpenGate Capital..now the price has come out in an SEC filing from MVSN. It is $1, and on top of that, Macrovision is loaning the firm up to $9.5 million, and OpenGate will assume certain liabilities of the TV Guide Magazine business.

...For the first six months of this year, TVG magazine had revenues of $19.77 million and net losses of $1.67 million, according to MVSN’s 10-Qfor the last quarter. We have it from a source that the magazine has a deferred subscription liability of over $50 million, which means they have collected that amount from subscribers for copies not yet delivered, and in theory owe that money back if they stop publishing. So OpenGate has that liability now with this deal, something that MVSN really wanted off its hands.