Travel Guide Founder Resurrects Printed Edition to Compete with Google – April 2013 M&A Activity

Is there print after Google? The 83-year old founder of the Frommer’s brand travel guides certainly thinks so. Less than eight months after Google purchased the iconic Frommer’s brand from publisher John Wiley & Sons, Google has sold the brand to founder Arthur Frommer. Frommer, who originally sold his company in 1977, plans to rescind Google’s decision to cease printing and start up the presses once again. He’ll have to compete with the online services offered by Google, which claims to have gleaned all the travel content it wanted before selling the brand back to Frommer. We reported on Google’s purchase of Frommer’s in August 2012, suggesting that the acquisition was indicative that content is king. Since Google now has the content, can the resurrected print edition survive?