More on the Ziff Davis Deal: Rumor and Valuation

What’s still a rumor–though gaining steam, depending on the crowds you roll in–is that tomorrow Ziff Davis will make a “big announcement” and that that announcement will be the sale of its enterprise division to Insight Venture Partners, a New York-based private equity shop. We’ll see.

What’s not a rumor is that bond analysts and market insiders have been making valuations of the company and its sizeable debt (nearing $400 million right now) ever since the company officially embarked on its sales venture last summer. The industry talk was that Bob Callahan, CEO of the company, and Willis Stein, its private equity owners, would sell the company as one piece, and, they hoped, get somewhere around $600 million for it. By August, it started to become clear that the company would have to be sold in parts and that $600 million wasn’t realistic.

The most up-to-date valuations that I have peg the value of the company at $357.4 million. The game group was valued at $89.1 million, the consumer group (PC Mag, et al) at $130.2 million, and the enterprise group at $138 million.

Hopefully, we’ll find out tomorrow how close the analysts are.