Reed's bids drop to $1 billion

The offer for Reed Business Information has dropped to $1 billion, according to reports from Bloomberg.
The report says the sale will either be cancelled or a bidder will be chosen in the next few weeks for final talks in coming weeks.
From the story:

Reed Business Information, which publishes film-industry journal Variety, was put up for sale in February, and analysts estimated it would fetch about $2 billion. Bidding has been hampered by the economic slump and frozen debt markets. Reed Elsevier said last week it may be unable to sell the unit in the current climate. The company is selling Reed Business Information to become less dependent on ad revenue and economic swings.