Deal of the Year

Reinhard Mohn must be moaning:

Gruner & Jahr, a division of the German media giant Bertelsmann, is expected to announce today that it has reached an agreement to sell its two American business magazines, Inc. and Fast Company, for about $35 million, a fraction of what it paid for the publications.

The tentative agreement, with Joseph Mansueto, founder of an investment research company, was reached last night, according to someone close to the deal.

Gruner & Jahr bought both magazines five years ago for $550 million - Inc. from Bernard Goldhirsch for $200 million and Fast Company from Mortimer Zuckerman for $350 million.

The deal follows last month's sale of Gruner & Jahr's women's magazines - Family Circle, Parents, Child and Fitness - to the Meredith Corporation for $350 million. With the sales, the company, troubled by a two-year-old circulation scandal, is effectively rid of its American magazines, although it retains ownership of a magazine printing company.

But it barely makes a dent in his family fortune (estimated by Forbes at $4.2 billion)