Investors agree on Ziff Davis restructuring; co. closes "Smart Business".Ziff Davis Media (Ziff Davis Media Inc., New York, www.ziffdavis.com) A leading integrated media company that serves the computer, videogame and consumer lifestyle markets. Its offerings include PC Magazine and the PCMag.com Network, which includes PCMag.com, ExtremeTech. (New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of ) and majority investor Willis Stein & Partners III (New York) have agreed on a restructuring plan that will allow Ziff to continue operations, at least for the next few months. Under terms of the deal, Willis Stein will make an equity cash investment of $80 million. Ziff will be freed up from making twice-yearly interest payments on $250 million worth of junk bonds as the value of the bonds will, be reduced 60% to $95 million. Ziff said the only alternative to the deal is bankruptcy. By agreeing to the deal, Willis Stein said it was trying to give Ziff enough time to ride out the advertising slowdown that has had such a drastic impact on ZD revenues. In 2000, Ziff lost $28.8 million on revenues of $353 million while Ziff lost $415.7 million on revenues of $224.6 million in 2001, with restructuring contributing to the loss. For the first three months of 2002, Ziff lost $14.6 million on revenue of $48.4 million compared to a loss of $29.9 million on revenues of $80.6 million in first quarter 2001. Also, Ziff's independent auditor Independent Auditor An external auditor with a certified public accounting designation that qualifies him or her to provide an auditor's report. Notes: These auditors aren't affiliated with the company being audited. , PricewaterhouseCoopers, has raised concerns about the company's continued feasibility while Ziff's own filings with the SEC state that it does not have existing sources of cash to continue operations over the next year. One of the few bright notes for Ziff is the increase in advertising for its consumer game magazines. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. ad tracking service AdScope (Eugene, OR), Ziff's video game magazines, including Electronic Gaming Monthly Electronic Gaming Monthly (often abbreviated to EGM) is an American video game magazine. It is published by Ziff-Davis as part of the 1UP Network and releases 12 issues a year (and an occasional extra "13th" issue for the Christmas season, also known as the , Official U.S. Playstation Magazine Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine (often abbreviated to OPM) is a now-defunct international video game magazine, originally published by Ziff Davis Media. and GameNow, had a 47% increase in ad pages in the first quarter of 2002 compared to the same period in 2001. In related news, Ziff has ceased publication of Smart Business magazine with the June issue. The monthly was launched as PC Computing in 1988 and changed its name in late 1999. Ziff said ad pages for the title were down 37.7% in first quarter 2002 when compared to the same period last year. Ziff will continue to operate the magazine's Web site and plans to relaunch Relaunch can refer to several things:
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