BtoB Media Business - September 2011 - (Page 10)

M&A OUTLOOK Wickersham foresees M&A resurgence ohn Wickersham is a partner at At- add acquisitions, but they’ve been unable to wood Advisors, formerly Quayle in the past two years. So they’re even more Munro Holdings. He is the former motivated today to get those things done CEO of VNU Business Media. He spoke when they have more ability to do those with Media Business about why he’s bull- deals now. There is, especially in the tradiish on prospects for mergers and tional media market, a strong, Q&A acquisitions activity in b-to-b common motivation to focus on media—defined broadly to inyour core assets and to really domclude print, online, events, inate in the sectors you’ve chosen databases and software. to dominate in. That’s a very comMedia Business: What was mon strategy through b-to-b meyour assessment of b-to-b media dia. It also means that many peoM&A in the first half of the year? ple want to divest what is defined John Wickersham: I as their noncore assets. All of those thought it to be fairly slow, sur- JOHN things create transactions. The WICKERSHAM prisingly slow, particularly in Partner, other piece is the lending market, the first quarter. It began to Atwood Advisors and that remains somewhat conpick up in the second quarter. servative. But lending certainly In the third and fourth quarters, I’m seems to be available for the larger deals. I imagining quite a significant pickup. see it continuing to move downstream. MB: What do you see driving the anticiMB: What’s your assessment of the pated growth? And what are some factors still companies owned by private equity firms? holding back M&A activity in b-to-b media? Wickersham: A lot of the (b-to-b meWickersham:There has been a pent-up dia) ownership resides with the private eqdemand for deals or transactions over the uity players. They’ve judged the market to past two years when the conditions haven’t be not so favorable to bringing these combeen as favorable. Companies have strategic panies to market (in the recent past), and needs—maybe a strategic company wants only now do they see the winds are more to focus on its core assets and add things to favorable. I’m seeing many more private what they’re doing in a part of their company equity companies going to market with they really want to grow—so they want to these companies. They’ve been with these J companies for such a long time—and sometimes they are even investments beyond their 10-year time frame—so there’s a lot of pressure on the part of the limited partners who are supporting the private equity funds to realize their returns. MB: Do you think the industry and the M&A market have adjusted to the new reality facing b-to-b media? Wickersham: There’s a developing ideal business model for business media. The old model had to do with scale. You would gain economies of scale, and, in fact, the thought was originally that you could apply similar strategies to very disparate markets. The reality has proved to be the opposite today, and the realization that online media requires focus and requires unique strategies per market. MB: To what degree do you see advertising on social media sites such as LinkedIn as a threat to b-to-b media revenue? Wickersham: I haven’t heard much advertising moving in that direction. However, I do agree that there is fairly vast potential there. I think if LinkedIn does it right, it could become a formidable competitor for b-to-b ad dollars. If they do it right. I think you were around when VerticalNet first came in. [VerticalNet] did a lot of things wrong. They had a real opportunity. Top b-to-b M&A transactions of the first half Date Buyer (Parent) March eBay April June CoStar Group New Mountain Capital Seller (Parent) GSI Commerce LoopNet Property description Provider of e-commerce and marketing services Commercial real estate data company Market research and software company Global interactive agency Sector Online media & technology Database & information services Marketing & interactive services Value ($ mil.) $2,400 860 800 May June April May June April SymphonyIRI Group (Symphony Technology Group) Publicis Groupe Rosetta Marketing Group DG Fast Channel MediaMind Solera Holdings Kohlberg Kravis Roberts Google Explore Information Services Ipreo Holdings (VSS) AdMeld Aspen Marketing Services Radian6 Alliance Data Systems Corp. March Salesforce.com Marketing & interactive Services Global provider of digital advertising Marketing & solutions interactive services Provider of data and analytics for auto- Database & motive property and casualty insurers information services Capital markets data provider Database & information services Provider of advertising technology Marketing & and support to online publishers interactive services Privately held marketing services Marketing & agency interactive services Social media monitoring service Marketing & interactive services 575 524 520 425 400 Photo by Sarah Merians 345 326 Source: Jordan, Edmiston Group Transaction Database, 2011 10 | Media Business | September 2011 | mediabusinessonline.com http://www.Salesforce.com http://www.mediabusinessonline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of BtoB Media Business - September 2011

BtoB Media Business - September 2011
Table of Contents
Outsell report bodes well for b-to-b media
Companies plan for growth amid economic uncertainty
Dealmaking picks up, raising hopes of a comeback
Sales & Marketing
Events
Audience Development
Production
People
Benchmarks
How SourceMedia transformed its operations

BtoB Media Business - September 2011