MGM Resorts Is Weighing a Bid for People Inc, Months After the Magazine Publisher Tried to Buy MGM

MGM Resorts International is considering acquiring People Inc, the magazine publisher behind PEOPLE, Food and Wine, Travel and Leisure and Better Homes and Gardens, in a striking reversal of a deal the two companies had discussed only weeks earlier in the opposite direction. A GuruFocus report on the takeover speculation said shares of People Inc jumped more than 11 percent, closing up 4.12 dollars at 40.05 dollars, giving the company a market capitalisation of roughly 2.98 billion dollars, after the Wall Street Journal reported MGM was weighing a bid for the publisher.

A bid that ran the other way first

The role reversal follows People Inc's own decision to withdraw a bid valued at more than 18 billion dollars for all of MGM Resorts' publicly held shares, a proposal the publisher had put forward as one of the casino operator's largest shareholders, holding roughly 27 percent of MGM's stock at the time. Deadline's report on the shifting talks said People Inc, whose chairman Barry Diller has built the company since it split from IAC's Dotdash Meredith lifestyle brands in 2025, remains open to strategic alternatives even after dropping its own acquisition attempt.

Two undervalued companies eyeing each other

Both sides reportedly see genuine upside in a combination precisely because each company's shares have traded below what their boards consider fair value, with People Inc's stable of lifestyle titles, Food and Wine chief among them, seen as a natural complement to MGM's hospitality and entertainment business rather than a simple financial bolt-on. That logic mirrors the rationale People Inc offered when it first proposed buying MGM outright, only with the acquirer and target now switched, a sequence that leaves both companies effectively negotiating from opposite sides of the same underlying idea within the space of a single month.

What the reversal signals

The speed with which the proposed direction of the deal flipped, from People Inc bidding for MGM to MGM reportedly weighing a bid for People Inc, points to a negotiation in which neither company has settled on which side of the table it wants to sit, even as both apparently agree that some form of combination makes strategic sense. Neither company has confirmed a formal offer is on the table, and the report attributing the latest interest to MGM rests on Wall Street Journal sourcing rather than an announcement from either party, leaving plenty of room for the talks to shift direction again before any transaction is finalised.

A media and hospitality tie-up still taking shape

If MGM does pursue People Inc formally, the deal would represent one of the more unusual pairings of a Las Vegas casino operator with a print and digital lifestyle publisher in recent memory, betting that magazine brands built around travel, food and home life can drive real value for a company whose core business is resorts and gaming. For now, the market's reaction, an 11 percent jump in People Inc's shares on reported interest alone, suggests investors see the logic even before either company has put a formal structure or price on the table.