BtoB Media Business - April 2008 - (Page 19)

M&A Elsevier on fast track Acquisition of Windhover strengthens firm’s position in online health care info markets BY MATTHEW SCHWARTZ ANALYST INSIGHT JOHN T. SHEA COO, Berkery Noyes E lsevier is on an acquisitive tear. The publisher of science and health care information recently acquired Windhover Information, which covers the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. Windhover will operate within Elsevier’s Pharma Business Intelligence unit. That division also includes F-D-C Report, which tracks new drug approvals and provides specialized coverage of the medical device, diagnostic and instrumentation industries, and Inteleos, a drug development database. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. “We needed to broaden the content and go beyond the F-D-C,” said Brian Nairn, CEO of Elsevier Health Sciences, a subsidiary of Anglo-Dutch publishing giant Reed Elsevier. Elsevier publishes more than 700 medical journals; its major properties include The Lancet and Web sites Embase.com and Science Direct. “We’re acquiring content that expands our usefulness [online] and gets us closer to pharmaceutical marketing,” Nairn said. Morris Levitt, managing director, life sciences, of media investment bank DeSilva & Phillips, said Elsevier’s acquisition strategy is “two sides of the coin” as it pertains to Reed Elsevier’s recent decision to put its print-heavy Reed Business Information portfolio on the block. “Clearly, Reed doesn’t see a great future for RBI,” he said. “At the same time, they see value in health care information services and are being aggressive in investing in that area.” Elsevier’s acquisition of Windhover comes on the heels of several similar deals designed to strengthen the publisher’s position in clinical reference and clinical decision support tools, two areas critical to the delivery of health care. In January Elsevier acquired MEDai Inc., a predictive analysis company that examines health care claims, and in December it bought CPM Resource Center, which provides nursing care plans. Financial terms of those deals were similarly not disclosed. Nairn said a key element of Elsevier’s strategy is to build interactive tools that complement the properties it acquires. “We’re big believers in the idea of combining acquisitions and organic development,” he said. For example, in 2006 Elsevier acquired Health Education Systems, a review and testing company for nursing students. Elsevier added to it an interactive tool called EvolveReach, which identifies content areas in which nursing students may be weak. Elsevier will continue to be on the lookout for U.S. companies “in which we can accelerate innovation,” Nairn said. The legal sector is also seeing growing demand for work-flow services. An example of this trend is Counsel Press, a company acquired in 2005 by Dolan Media Co. that helps law firms pursue appeals from lower courts. “This is how we inoculate ourselves against economic cycles, because most of the service we can provide is noncyclical,” said Jim Dolan, chairman-president-CEO of Dolan Media, which covers the legal, financial and real estate sectors. “B-to-b media companies have to think about what they can do for their clients and customers in ways that broaden the financial relationship and are a logical extension of the business they know.” More caution on b-to-b deals fter being kept at bay the last few months, the sluggish economy is now starting to have a negative impact on b-to-b media deals, according to John T. Shea, COO of media investment bank Berkery Noyes. “In January and February, people were living off the TIPS deals that had carDo: Buyers ried over from should carefully 2007,” he said. look at their “But now there’s own assumpdefinitely caution on tions before pulling the trigthe part of sellers. ger on a deal. People had hoped Don’t: Sellers [the negative should not proimpact of the econ- vide a business omy] would be con- forecast they can’t meet. The fined to the largerquickest way to sized deals, but that have to renegohas trickled down to tiate the price on a potential the medium- and deal is not to hit smaller-size deals.” your forecast. Asked about Reed Elsevier’s recent decision to put its Reed Business Information unit up for sale, Shea said, “That will not be an easy transaction.” Although rumors abound that British-based private equity firms, including Apax Partners, Permira and Guardian Media Group, are interested in acquiring RBI, Shea said the unit would most likely be broken up and sold in pieces to “buyers strategically looking for what [individual titles] fit” with their existing portfolios. As sellers hold out for better prices on deals and private equity firms contend with reduced access to capital markets, the b-to-b M&A market will be less active in the spring and summer compared with the same periods last year. “You may start to see things turn around in the fourth quarter or early —M.S. 2009,” Shea said. M&A A A roundup of recent mergers and acquisitions M&A ACTION Date Property 3/8 3/8 3/8 Hallmark Data Systems Altman Weil Publications Prospero Technologies Description Provider of fulfillment and CRM solutions Publisher of surveys on the legal profession Provider of community content management solutions for the online publishing industry Seller Buyer Hallmark Data EBSCO Systems Industries Altman Weil ALM Publications Prospero Technologies Mzinga Source: Jordan, Edmiston Group Transaction Database, 2008 mediabusinessonline.com | April 2008 | Media Business | 19 http://Embase.com http://mediabusinessonline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of BtoB Media Business - April 2008

BtoB Media Business - April 2008
Contents
'CSO's' 'Red Gold Rush' Takes Top Honors
Smaller Publishers Make Big Moves Online
Key Printing Trends to Keep Tabs on This Year
Sales & Marketing
M&A
Online
Events
People
Benchmarks
Economic Downturn Presents Opportunities

BtoB Media Business - April 2008