Thursday, May 22, 2008

FranklinCovey Spins Off Consumer Business Unit

Salt Lake City, Utah-based FranklinCovey said Thursday afternoon that it is in an agreement with investment firm Peterson Partners, to create a new company called Franklin Covey Products, LLC. The new company will purchase FranklinCovey's Consumer Business Unit, which prints planners, software, and products, and operate's FranklinCovey's retail stores. According to FranklinCovey, the new company will pay $32.0M in cash for the assets of its CSBU unit. FranklinCovey itself will invest $1.7M in the new company for 19.5% voting interest in the new company, along with contingent license fees. After the spinoff, FranklinCovey will focus on its its organizational training and consulting offerings. The firm said the spinout was a result of a belief that the business units would be able to operate more effectively as separate companies, each with clear and distinct strategic objectives, market definitions, and competitive sets; the firm also said that the overlap between its training and consulting and hard goods it sells has diminished.