TORSTAR $4.45 (Toronto symbol TS.B; Shares outstanding: 79.9 million; Market cap: $351.4 million; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 11.8%; www.torstar.com) has purchased 56% of VerticalScope, a private firm that operates over 600 online forums and a variety of websites, including AutoGuide.com, Motorcycle.com, ATV.com and PetGuide.com.
The online forums attract 80 million unique visitors and 500 million page views per month. Much of VerticalScope’s website traffic comes from the U.S.
This purchase should help Torstar offset slowing advertising revenue at its newspapers as advertisers shift their spending to the Internet.
The company paid $200 million, but Vertical- Scope plans to pay a distribution to its shareholders later this year. That would cut Torstar’s purchase price to $178 million.
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