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THE TEAM that successfully turned around Petersen Cos. is aiming for an encore performance with Ziff-Davis Publishing.
Willis Stein & Partners, a Chicago-based equity firm, bought ZD Publishing in December from Softbank Corp., Tokyo, for $780 million in cash, and brought in James Dunning as chairman-CEO of ZiffDavis Holdings L.L.C.
Willis Stein bought specialty publisher Petersen in 1996 for $465 million and placed it under Mr. Dunning's leadership. Less than three years later, it sold Petersen for $1.5 billion.
The ZD Publishing acquisition...