The Guinness World Records business is up for sale. The company's original publication is the Guinness Book of Records, founded by the eccentric English McWhirter twins in 1955. Its parent company, Diageo, which was formed from a merger between Guinness and Grand Metropolitan in 1997, is selling the publishing unit to focus on its core activities in the alcoholic beverage industry.
Guinness World Records is a profitable organization and will not be short of bidders. In 2000, profits were about £6 million ($9 million) on sales of £23 million ($34 million), the majority of the sales coming from its book publishing activities. The U.K. and U.S. accounted for 75% of total sales, with the remainder generated in Europe and Asia.
Managing director Steve Nelson believes that the brand is vastly underexploited; a new management team was brought in last December to evaluate its potential. Nelson believes the greatest area of development is in the worldwide syndication and distribution of TV shows. With that in mind, media companies with both television and publishing arms, such as News Corp. and Pearson, are considered likely bidders.
