Fusion Corporate Partners are pleased to announce our latest deal: the sale of Carson Systems Ltd a UK-based producer of industry-leading events for Web developers, designers, and entrepreneurs, to US-based Wellesley Information Services (WIS). Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Carson Systems produces events for web professionals and entrepreneurs. The company’s Future of Web Applications (FOWA), Future of Web Design (FOWD), and Future of Mobileity (FOM) series of events are annual gatherings of thought leaders, technologists, and investors. They have featured renowned speakers including Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh, O’Reilly Media founder Tim O’Reilly, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and Digg founder Kevin Rose.
Carson Systems has been particularly effective using social networks and other information delivery mechanisms to build a community of developers, designers, and futurists who are passionate about technology and leveraging it to make a significant impact on business and society.
“Both WIS and Carson Systems have unique competencies within their respective core market spaces. We are confident that, through this acquisition, each organization can learn from the other’s expertise — and together we will be much better positioned to offer unmatched value and exciting new products for our customers,” said Benny DiCecca, CEO of WIS.
WIS is a portfolio company of UCG and a provider of SAP and IBM training and education. WIS serves more than 250,000 customers in over 100 countries, and offers a diverse set of resources including print journals, magazines, electronic knowledge bases, online communities, conferences, seminars, and books. This is WIS’s first acquisition in the UK and will position WIS to serve a brand new market space.
“Web and mobile application development represents technology’s future. Carson Systems has consistently been at the epicenter of this technological revolution, offering education and training to an exciting breed of entrepreneurial web developers and designers. The opportunities in this market are immense, and we are excited to bring WIS’s deep knowledge of the conference, publication, online education, and custom training business to help capitalize on them,” said DiCecca.
Mark Eisenstadt Partner at Fusion said, “Ryan Carson is passionate about bringing the latest and best practice to the web community. We were delighted to have the opportunity to work with Ryan and his team. Carson Systems is a high quality business and tailor-made for WIS. I am sure that WIS’s expertise as a leading provider of technology education combined with Carson’s ability to attract leading edge players in the technology market will ensure the business accelerates it’s growth to cater for this expanding marketplace’’
Fusion acted exclusively for the shareholders of Carson Systems Ltd. Mark Eisenstadt (meisenstadt@fusioncorp.co.uk) led the Fusion team and was supported by Paul Kelly (pkelly@fusioncorp.co.uk). Mogers Solicitors, headed by Tom Webb, provided legal advice to the vendors.
UK, Bath & USA, Dedham, MA
Other Fusion Deals:
Media and Information
- A Fusion Deal: FMB Consultants sold to Argus Media Posted on June 10, 2011
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