Ziff-Davis to sell publishing unit.

Trade magazine publisher Ziff-Davis Inc., seeking to boost its sagging share price, said Monday it agreed to sell PC Magazine, PC Computing and most of its other publications for $780 million in cash to private investment firm Willis Stein & Partners. ZIFF-DAVIS said it would retain the publications Computer Shopper and its ownership interest in Red Herring, a Silicon Valley based-venture capital magazine. It will also keep its Internet properties, traded under the separate tracking stock of ZDNet. The deal includes a five-year deal under which ZDNet will pay royalties to use Ziff-Davis Publishing content online for five years. Ziff-Davis Publishing is the latest in a stream of businesses to be sold by Ziff-Davis, including education, market research and television units. The moves are part of the company's bid to boost the value of its flagging share price. The publishing unit transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2000 and is subject to financing and other customary conditions, the company said. The unit publishes PC Magazine, the world_s No. 1 ranked computer trade magazine, PC Week, a computer industry weekly and PC Computing, the No. 2-ranked U.S. computer consumer monthly. It also includes Interactive Week, an Internet weekly magazine, and Yahoo! Internet Life, a popular Internet consumer magazine title. It also expects to close the sale of its ZD Education and its interest in ZDTV before the end of the first quarter of 2000 for $172 million and $204.8 million respectively. The ZDTV transaction will give Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen a 97 percent share of the cable television channel focused on computers and the Internet.