Reader's Digest Association said to be up for sale to raise at least $1 billion

Reader's Digest Association (RDA) is reported to be for sale for around $1 billion, according to a story in the Financial Times. The story goes on to say that this is not necessarily a package deal and that the company might be open to selling parts rather than the whole.  

The company, which has about 90 magazines, went into bankruptcy protection in the U.S. last year and only emerged in February. Its Q1 results saw revenue down 21.2 percent to $326 million although ad pages for Reader's Digest were up 7.9 percent.

Since emerging from bankruptcy, Reader’s Digest Association has not been able to right itself [said FT]. In the last 10 months of 2010, the company lost $30m on $1.45bn in revenues.

RDA's Canadian subsidiary Reader's Digest Association (Canada) Ltd. publishes print and web properties of Reader's Digest, Selection (the French equivalent), Best Health magazine and Our Canada.