Argus Press

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Argus Press was a British <a href="/facts/Publishing/7g01YeYG">publishing company</a>. It was acquired by <a href="/facts/British_Electric_Traction/ugYmMS8L">British Electric Traction</a> (BET) in 1966, and became the publishing arm of that company. It was the subject of one of the most hotly contested <a href="/facts/Management_buyout/57Bve1re">management buyouts</a> of the 1980s when a management team led by Kimble Earl, George Fowkes, and Scott Smith secured financing of £207m from forty national and international banks to acquire the UK and US businesses from BET. The acquisition was of particular note as the publisher <a href="/facts/Robert_Maxwell/JPJxeouV">Robert Maxwell</a> was among the rival bidders, and widely considered as capable of out-witting the management team. Only an eleventh-hour intervention by Earl – exposing members of Maxwell's secret consortium as rival newspaper publishers which meant Maxwell would fall foul of the <a href="/facts/Competition_Commission/NPCLsfw0">Monopolies Commission</a> – brought success for the management team. The new company traded under the name of Team Argus. Its portfolio of businesses included the largest group of paid-for and free weekly newspapers in the UK, an extensive range of business titles in the UK and the USA, and a group of specialist hobby-interest magazines in the UK. Team Argus businesses were sold off to various buyers during the early 1990s.
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Argus Press open-in-new

Argus Press