Truly, it is not bragging if you can do it. Recently, Canon Press, the Christian publishing company operating out of Moscow, ID a has made an offer to buy out Christianity Today. Christianity Today was originally founded by Billy Graham in 1956 and, while a long-lasting brand in evangelicalism, has been utterly captured by liberalism.
Canon sent the first page of the letter of intent (LOI) to Megan Basham to initially break the story, which reads as follows:
Canon’s offer is for the purchase price of $10 million, though other terms, like the closing date, were not disclosed in the screenshot. The logic behind Canon’s offer is rather simple: Christianity Today is a compromised organization that they can rebuild into a reputable brand once again. From gay marriage to their anti-Trump bias in contradiction to how white evangelicals voted, Christianity Today is a liberal institution that opposes Christianity in the United States. Doubtless, Canon can boast of cost-saving measures like firing all the employees, which might be one of the aims of this acquisition offer. Further efficiencies exists as Canon, being a publisher, could integrate the magazine printing into their existing operations while streamlining the journalistic and opinion pieces in-house—perhaps even somewhat democratize the content like American Reformer. Advertising, a major cost for Christianity Today, would also be streamlined into the Canon operation. Uniquely, they would be combining a legacy brand with a publishing company which further can be used to promote authors under their label. By dangling a large sum of money, Canon will force the board to consider the offer in the interest of the nonprofit, much like how Twitter was forced to consider the offer made by Elon Musk to take it private.
The question then becomes the price of $10 million, which is large enough to gather their attention, but not high enough to justify an immediate acceptance. Unlike an M&A in the S&P 500, there are no recent financials publicly disclosed to compare against the offer, so the analysis has to go back to two years to CY2023.
Though Christianity Today boasted of $18.4 million in revenue, only $8.46 million was from subscription revenue, with the rest coming from investments, contributions, or grants, which does include government. The offer presents itself as above the revenue amount Christianity Today earns on its own, which is the strongest element of the offer. For assets, Christianity Today’s balance sheet, per their 2023 990, shows that they consist mostly of cash, whether donations, receivables, or securities. They reported a net $4 million in land, buildings, and equipment which would be tied to the deal. Really, apart from the Property, Plant, and Equipment, the main item being purchased is the name. Financially, they are a house of cards being propped up by grants which subsidize the lucrative $1.5 million their board of directors receives in annual compensation that year.
Legally, a for-profit can acquire a nonprofit, so on paper the offer is legitimate. However, unlike a corporate M&A as seen with Elon Musk buying Twitter, there are no shareholders involved who must approve the sale. Shareholders are incentivized to cash out their investments by approving the deal, while the board also receives a payout too, whether from the stock they own or from certain compensation earned for the stock’s performance. Thus, all parties are incentivized to negotiate a deal or face potential legal consequences. With a nonprofit, the decision would be left to only the board, where like an LLC, they do not have to accept offer or negotiate. Thus, it is unlikely Christianity Today can be compelled to accept.
Given that Christianity Today is a 501c3, the Canon Plus acquisition would and is specified to be an asset sale. Outside of book value of the assets on a business, businesses of the size and revenue of Christianity Today are generally valued at 3-5x their EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization). So Canon’s $10 million offer is not outside the ballpark of reasonable.
Conclusion
This offer is not lucrative enough to be automatically accepted, nor is it likely that the adversaries at Christianity Today would forego their lucrative jobs for $10 million, even if that money would go towards starting a fresh alternative. Moreover, they would be ceding a legacy institution to Moscow and the power that comes with the name Christianity Today.
Doug Wilson is using this M&A offer as part of a larger swinging contest, which is a savvy marketing ploy for Canon Press. If they accept, however unlikely, Wilson captures a legacy institution under his banner and unseats opponents from their castle. When the offer is likely rejected or ignored, he will have boosted the profile and financial legitimacy of Canon Press as a brand large enough to underwrite $10 million deals. They win either way because Canon Press measures out to be the larger company of the two. Therein lies the play being made.
One Response
The question is, WHY? What is the point? Wilson can open a website and hire some guys to go do some journalism and write articles. Why buy CT? To buy a workforce of woke urinalists? CT probably only has 2 employees and uses AI to write the articles anyway. It looks like one woke goober who pretends to be “based” bailing out the woke investors to me.