Within the maritime media landscape the big news this week has emanated from Chattanooga on the banks of the Tennessee river where FreightWaves founder and CEO Craig Fuller, one of the sector’s most high-profile tycoons, has decided to split up his media empire from his data business.
Fuller has spun off his media businesses into a new entity named Firecrown with the company explaining in a release: “The move is designed to allow FreightWaves’ Sonar team to concentrate on scaling their software as a service (SaaS) platform, without the complexities of media operations.”
Firecrown is set to house media entities that cover the maritime, trucking, aviation, and boating industries. Shipping titles include American Shipper, acquired in 2019.
Fuller, the son of the founder of US Xpress, a trucking firm, founded FreightWaves in 2016, offering data, news, and TV shows to the logistics industry, growing rapidly on the back of plenty of equity raises with venture capitalists.
The corporate split announced this week has been widely seen as a first step towards some kind of sell-off within the Fuller business, something the American discusses with Maritime CEO in an exclusive interview.
“We don’t have immediate plans to sell, but our investors are looking for us to maximise enterprise value, hence the reason for the split,” Fuller says, adding: “As a venture-backed tech company, you always know that the business is going to recap or IPO, it’s the way the model works.”
Fuller says any sale is unlikely to happen for at least two years, but he admits there is plenty of interest in his Sonar data business, a sector that has seen dramatic consolidation over the past year.
Sonar is a freight market intelligence platform offering near real-time trucking, railroad, ocean, and air freight transportation data.
“Media, I’m sure you appreciate this,” Fuller says in conversation with Maritime CEO, “is not something that investors chase, but SaaS is different. It’s highly desired by private equity and strategics, not to mention IPO.”
Fuller feels that a combined entity would fetch a far lower price than a pure-play SaaS business, but he is keen to stress he has no intention to sell his media business, which comprises some 35 titles these days.
“I don’t see our media business ever being sold,” he says. “Now that I own it and have combined it with my other media properties, it should generate really nice cash flows and serves as a great lifestyle business.”
Last month, Fuller joined the board of directors of Repowr, a Chattanooga-based commercial trailer online platform.
