The sale of a big chunk of Rolling Stone magazine began with a casual meeting between a scion of one of Asia’s richest families and the son of magazine impresario Jann Wenner, during a sweltering New York summer.
A mutual friend had suggested Kuok Meng Ru, blues aficionado and son of palm oil tycoon Kuok Khoon Hong, meet Gus Wenner, the 26-year-old heir apparent to a business built around his father’s iconic pop magazine. They hit it off. Close in age, they discovered a shared love of the guitar and Bob Dylan. Each had played in bands as teenagers. And both were trying to launch digital businesses of their own, independent of their well-known fathers.
Inevitably, they began to talk shop. The 28-year-old founder of BandLab Technologies was several years into acquiring the pieces of a business he envisioned would someday provide all things music, from a social network for aspiring artists to the amps and instruments used on stage. His American counterpart was trying to craft a digital strategy for Wenner Media LLC, the company behind Us Weekly and Men’s Journal now fighting to stay relevant and keep advertisers in an online age.
It took 15 months of trans-Pacific flights and phone calls before Kuok clinched his prize: a 49 percent stake in the celebrated magazine, becoming the first outside investor in Rolling Stone’s 49-year history. Kuok will head Rolling Stone International, a company to be established in Singapore that the partners hope can use the brand to delve into concerts, merchandising and hospitality. The Wenners think Kuok can help them plumb from Asia the growth that’s eluding them back home.
