BtoB Media Business - December 2006 - (Page 24)

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People tend hat is in a b-to-b media name? to know business books by title, and we’re Wind Point Partners’ simulta- going to market with our titles and not as neous acquisitions of b-to-b me- Summit Business Media.” dia companies Highline Media and Pfingsten TenBroek said Wind Point is providing Publishing may provide a clue. Summit Business Media with a “substantial Private equity firm WPP bought the two equity commitment to grow the business.” trade publishers Nov. 9 and combined them to Pfingsten Publishing, a subsidiary of priform Summit Business Media. Financial terms vate equity firm Pfingsten Partners, covers were not disclosed, but people familiar with the nine market segments through three business moves pegged the combined value of the deals groups. Its magazines include American Agent at between $190 million and $200 million. & Broker, Art Business News, Contractor Tools The new company was formed in & Supplies, DECOR, Framing partnership with Bill Reilly, former Monthly, Life Insurance Selling, chairman-CEO of Primedia, who has Mortgage Originator, MRO Today, been named Summit’s chairmanProgressive Distributor and Volume. CEO. Andrew Goodenough remains It also has a variety of online and president-CEO of Highline Media, event properties. and Joe Bennett remains president of Highline Media owns National UnPfingsten Publishing. derwriter Co., whose titles include While the new company is up Claims, Life/Health, National Undereri Agent and running, its name could pose a ‘Armkercan one of & writer Property/Casualtyand Tech DeciB o ’ is problem, as “Summit” already is be- the titles recently sions. It also owns insurance and banking used by another b-to-b publish- acquired by Wind ing data assets and Wealth Manager. Point Partners. ing house. “Both companies have strong Summit Publishing Co. publishes Packag- platforms with complementary assets and ing World 87,500 circ. and has several other skill,” said Scott Peters, managing director of print, online and event properties, while sib- Jordan, Edmiston Group, which represented ling Summit Media owns Automation World, Pfingsten in the transaction. “Highline is a monthly business publication targeting strong in electronic products and Pfingsten is 70,000 automation professionals. strong in events.” Lloyd Ferguson, president of Summit PubHowever, one industry observer said he lishing, said he is considering legal action if a was puzzled by the deal. “The emphasis today compromise cannot be reached with Summit is on a more focused portfolio, whereas Reilly’s Business Media. “I am stunned by the fact [new] portfolio is more diversified,” said the obthat they didn’t see ‘Summit’ in a title search server, who asked not to be identified. “It could or due diligence,” he said. be that Reilly … has a strategy on how to run a Asked if the name might sow confusion, diversified company, but owning both compaR Jim TenBroek, a managing director at Wind nies runs counter to b-to-b media trends.” BY MATTHEW SCHWARTZ W With big deals done, focus turns to ‘minnows’ W ith many of the larger deals in b-to-b media now out of the way, the M&A focus will soon start to shift to the “minnows,” said Hal Greenberg, managing director of private equity fund Veronis Suhler Hal Greenberg, Stevenson. “Now is the time Veronis Suhler Stevenson to sell,” said GreenTIPS berg, referring to the DO: Sellers healthy appetite for need to show smaller b-to-b mestrong growth dia properties plus rates in the the still generous e-media prodbank lending rates ucts in their that have fueled one portfolios. DON’T: In due of the most active diligence, buyM&A markets in ers should not years. lump together Greenberg said e-media comevents are currently ponents, such the most attractive as e-marketing and e-subscriptargets. “It’s been one of the strongest- tions, which should remain performing sectors separate. for 10 years,” he said. “Even during the downturn in ’01, ’02 and ’03, it still performed well.” Trade shows that stem from a print product—or vice versa—also make for a “compelling package,” he added. Online pure plays, while not as attractive as Web sites that include print and/or trade show components, hold appeal, too, Greenberg said. B-to-b media companies that rely solely on print will continue to struggle, he said. “Future growth rates for pure print products will grow only at the rate of inflation,” he said, “but online sites are growing at a much faster pace.” —Matthew Schwartz M&A ACTION A roundup of recent mergers and acquisitions Date Property 11/6 Penton Media Description Global b-to-b media company that produces magazines, online products and events for a variety of industries 11/6 LDC Forum Conferences for the natSeries ural gas distribution industry. Source: Jordan, Edmiston Group Transaction Database, 2006 Seller Penton Media ABRY Partners Buyer Prism Business Media Wasserstein & Co. LDC Forum Access IntelliSeries gence Veronis Suhler Stevenson 24 | Media Business | December 2006 | mediabusinessonline.com 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 - December 2006

Table of Contents
Upfront
Special Report
Resource Guide
Endnote
Sales & Marketing
M&A
Events
Online
Circulation
Production
People
Benchmarks

BtoB Media Business - December 2006

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