BtoB Media Business - January 2007 - (Page 19)

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Don’t: UnderesBusiness Media. timate the value Reinhardt said of using acquisithe brisk pace of tions to diversimergers in b-to-b fy and grow revmedia won’t let up enue as well as the segments, as long as bank channels, inforlending rates remational needs main low. and communiAs has been ties in your the case the last space. few years, private equity firms will continue to drive the mega b-to-b media deals while strategic players will stick with acquiring smaller assets in the trade show space and online, Reinhardt predicted. Business publishers this year will also be in hot pursuit of data services and other “business intelligence” assets that can align with their print and online properties, Reinhardt said. “B-to-b media companies need to be both deeper and broader in the marketplace, and [data services] allow them to do that rather than typically launching ancillary products,” he said. “Data provides a more effective reach.” —Matthew Schwartz W generation across all its advertising categories. hen Tad Smith, CEO of Reed “Every advertiser finds value in publishers’ Business Information, was re- print products and Web sites,” Zales said. searching BuyerZone.com as a “Now we can add value [for advertisers] by potential acquisition, he had his exec VP-CFO, finding buyers throughout the entire purJohn Poulin, give the lead generation Web chasing cycle.” site a whirl. Smith said Reed Business would make all “It’s amazing. It’s just like craigslist. He got its content available to BuyerZone. The comquotes back so fast it blew our minds,” said pany has about 80 b-to-b print publications, Smith, who last summer took the helm of 75 Web sites, and e-mail direct marketing and Reed Business. Smith was impressed enough subscription database businesses. with the service to pursue the acquisition, The potential synergies of the deal could which closed this month. Finanprompt other business publishers cial terms were not disclosed. to try to align their publishing “We’re excited to bring the portfolios with lead generation value of BuyerZone to our cuscompanies so publishers have less tomers because it really works exposure to the cyclical nature of and is a profitable business,” b-to-b advertising. Smith said. Asked about the strat“Big media companies have egy behind the deal, he said: “It’s got a mandate to grow, and about giving BuyerZone the asthey’re all looking at lead generasets it needs to grow and integrat- BuyerZone.com links tion and how to get there,” said buyers and suppliers. ing their assets into our business.” Tolman Geffs, managing director BuyerZone, which introduced its online of media investment bank Jordan, Edmiston marketplace in 2000, links prospective buyers Group, who represented Reed Business in the to qualified suppliers in more than 134 busi- transaction. ness product and service categories. These “They have to find some combo of make categories include financial products, human versus buy, and buying will get you there a resources, marketing, office and industrial lot faster and is about the same cost [as develequipment, retail services, software services, oping one’s own lead generation tool].” technology and telecom. Since 2004, Buyer“Reed wants to move aggressively into Zone has facilitated more than $5 billion Web revenue and to diversity its advertising worth of transactions, according to Sam Zales, base,” Geffs added. “BuyerZone is good at president-CEO. taking users through a research funnel, refinOnce the two businesses integrate their as- ing needs into specifications and then spitting R sets, Reed Business will be able to offer lead out a number of vendors.” BY MATTHEW SCHWARTZ D M&A A roundup of recent mergers and acquisitions M&A ACTION Date Property 12/6 Alert Global Media 11/6 Blackwell Publishing Holdings 11/6 Woodworking Machinery & Supply, SIBO Description Publisher of moneylaundering.com and “Money Laundering Alert” newsletter Publisher of 825 journals in the science, medical, social science and humanities sectors Canadian trade shows Seller Alert Global Media Blackwell Publishing Holdings Reed Exhibitions Buyer Fortent Warburg Pincus John Wiley & Sons Vance Publishing Source: Jordan, Edmiston Group Transaction Database, 2006 mediabusinessonline.com | January 2007 | Media Business | 19 Warning : Unknown : The session id contains invalid characters, valid characters are only a-z, A-Z and 0-9 in Unknown on line 0 Warning : Unknown : Failed to write session data files . 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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of BtoB Media Business - January 2007

Contents
Upfront
Cover Story
Feature
Sales & Marketing
M&A
Events
Production
Online
Circulation
People
Benchmarks
Endnote

BtoB Media Business - January 2007