BBC's new acquisition by Claudia Sonea

Lonely Planet, the largest independently-owned travel guidebook publisher in the world, with operations in Australia, Britain and California has just become the newest acquisition of the British Broadcasting Corp. Actually they announced on Monday only a 75 percent part of the guidebook. Tony and Maureen Wheeler wrote a book titled Once While Travelling: The Lonely Planet Story in which it was related how they met and married, how they travelled from London to Australia overland and how Lonely Planet was formed. Together with the advertising magnate John Singleton who became a shareholder in 1999 they sold the guidebook to BBC, keeping a 25 percent. In Melbourne will be the global headquarters, Lonely Planet that publishes about 500 titles including specialist activity guides, shoestring guides and phrase books in various languages, is supposed to go to the next level after this sale, according to the Wheelers. While Etienne de Villiers, non-executive chairman of BBC Worldwide promises visibility and growth potential to become stronger. What it will be, go ahead and try the new product and see the truth. Enjoy!

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20071001/ap_tr_ge/travel_brief_britain_bbc_lonely_planet;_ylt=AhKV9r8ztDR1jsj0.QMsZbWs0NUE

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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