Future, one of Europe’s biggest and most successful digital media companies, has seen more than £300m wiped off its market value after the company said that chief executive Zillah Byng-Thorne is to step down after almost a decade.
Byng-Thorne, who has made more than £35m transforming a magazine publisher facing collapse into a £1.7bn digital media empire, has told Future that she intends to step down by the end of the next year.
Shares in Future, which owns brands including Marie Claire, TechRadar, Country Life, Horse & Hound, Metal Hammer and the price comparison site GoCompare, plunged more than 16% on news of the 47-year-old’s intention to step down.
“Future made it clear in last year’s annual report that chief executive succession planning was an ongoing focus of the board and nomination committee,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Zillah Byng-Thorne, CEO, joined the business in November 2013 and is approaching nine years at the group. Zillah remains committed to the business, and has not resigned; however she has informally indicated that she would like to step down by the end of 2023.”
Last week, THG, the online shopping group formerly known as The Hut Group, announced that Byng-Thorne was standing down as a senior independent director.
In the same week she was appointed as deputy chairperson of the online reviews platform Trustpilot, with the expectation she will eventually replace Tim Weller as chair.
Byng-Thorne is one of the UK’s most successful media executives and was installed as chief executive at Future in April 2014 – having initially been hired as a part-time chief financial officer the previous year – going on to engineer an acquisition-fuelled turnaround of the FTSE 250 business.
The company’s market value soared from £30m in 2013 to £4.7bn last year, making Future a stock market darling as it transformed from a print-based publisher to an e-commerce based digital media business.
However, since then its value has fallen by more than 60% to £1.7bn as investors on both sides of the Atlantic reassess the long-term value of tech-based businesses.
Byng-Thorne made tens of millions of pounds from the successful turnaround of Future magazines. However, in February 60% of investors failed to support Future’s annual pay report, which included a controversial bonus scheme that could result in Byng-Thorne being awarded £40m.
While the vote was non-binding the scale of the rebellion forced the company into an embarrassing consultation with shareholders.
Last year, Future paid £300m for Dennis, the publisher of titles including The Week and Minecraft World.
In 2020, Future spent almost £600m buying GoCompare, having months earlier completed a £140m deal to buy TI Media, formerly Time Inc UK, which publishes 40 titles including Horse & Hound, Woman & Home and Wallpaper.
