Valassis, publisher of the RedPlum coupon insert, recently put itself up for sale. It has also filed a lawsuit against NewsAmerica, publisher of the SmartSource coupon insert.
Crain’s Detroit has the story:
The answers to why Livonia-based direct-marketing and newspaper coupon giant Valassis Communications Inc. — a profitable company with $2 billion in annual revenue — chose to put itself up for sale can be found buried in a labyrinth of public disclosure documents.
Valassis’ earnings statements paint a picture of a company facing troubling financial questions about its core products, and management’s answer last year was to find a buyer for the firm George Valassis started in 1970 in Oak Park.
Valassis is the 19th-largest public company based in Southeast Michigan, as ranked in the 2014 Crain’s Book of Lists as ranked by 2012 revenue. If the sale goes through, it would become the 10th-largest privately held company by revenue in the region.
By the 1990s, Valassis came to own half the nation’s coupon market, but saw its core business erode as the daily newspaper industry rapidly began to decline.
Valassis has battled with News America in courtrooms nearly as much as in store aisles, and that cropped up in the sales negotiations.
In 2009, Valassis won a $500 million legal settlement stemming from the end of several long-running court cases with News America, a marketing company owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
The litigation over business practices isn’t over.
Valassis in November filed another lawsuit in federal court in Detroit against News America, alleging unfair, unethical and anti-competitive practices under state and federal antitrust laws.
Valassis accuses News America of not playing fair in the in-store marketing and bundled newspaper coupon business. It’s seeking $560 million.