ALM, owner of The American Lawyer and The National Law Journal and other titles, is to acquire Summit Professional Networks, the publisher of Investment Advisor and several insurance and legal publications including National Underwriter and InsideCounsel. The deal also includes Judy Diamond Associates, a provider of prospecting tools and data within the benefits industry.
This is the second acquisition by ALM in two months. ALM acquired Kennedy Consulting Research & Advisory in December.
“The acquisition of Summit Professional Networks represents the next major step in ALM’s growth strategy, expanding our reach into new strategic markets,” said Bill Carter, President and CEO of ALM. “What makes Summit an ideal fit with ALM is their strong competitive position in the markets they serve, driven by a combination of award-winning journalism and their robust custom marketing solutions.”
With six offices in the U.S., Summit publishes content through several brands in the investment advisory, legal, insurance and benefits fields. In addition to Investment Advisor, National Underwriter, and InsideCounsel, Summit publishes other brands including Credit Union Times, Benefits Selling, ThinkAdvisor.com, PropertyCasualty360 and LifeHealthPro, among others.
ALM was acquired in July by a consortium led by private-equity firm Wasserstein & Co. for $417 million. Wasserstein had previously owned ALM, but sold it to Incisive Media in 2007 for $630 million.
ITE Enterprises Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of ITE Group Plc, has acquired Breakbulk Holdco UK Ltd and its subsidiary companies from Electra backed, AXIO Data Group for up to $42 million (c.£26.8 million).
Breakbulk consists of a series of exhibitions, serving the transportation and logistics market for large scale project equipment, which are held annually in Houston, Antwerp, Shanghai, Johannesburg, Istanbul and Sao Paulo. In addition, the acquisition brings to ITE a magazine in print and digital format with expanded industry coverage along with its exhibition websites which serve the global breakbulk community.
The transaction is financed out of the Group’s existing cash and bank facilities and is expected to be earnings enhancing in the current financial year. Out of the total consideration of c.$42 million, $40 million was paid on completion with the balance payable once Breakbulk’s results for the period ended 31 December 2015 are available. The value of the gross assets being acquired is around $14m. The total profits generated by the assets acquired in the period ended 31 December 2013 was $2.6m. The Group anticipates that the purchase price equates to circa 8.5x expected FY15 EBITDA.
Breakbulk’s main events take place in Shanghai in March, Antwerp in April and Houston in October. Forward bookings for these 3 events for FY2015 are currently c90% of budget.
The current management team including Breakbulk’s Managing Director, Alli McEntyre will stay with the business.
Commenting on the acquisition, ITE’s Chief Executive Officer, Russell Taylor, said:
“ITE is continuing to build businesses in strategically important industry sectors and the acquisition of Breakbulk increases our presence in the global transportation and logistics sector. This complementary move represents progress in achieving the Group’s ambitions to expand its operations in markets and geographies with further potential for growthas well as continuing to diversify the geo-political risk in our portfolio.
Hearst Corporation has acquired Birmingham, Ala., NBC affiliate WVTM-TV, Channel 13, from Media General, Inc. and Savannah, Ga., ABC affiliate WJCL-TV, from LIN Media LLC. The announcement was made by Steven R. Swartz, president and CEO, Hearst Corporation, and Jordan Wertlieb, president, Hearst Television Inc. The terms of the transactions were not disclosed.
Birmingham is the 44th largest television market and Savannah is the 92nd largest.
Hearst also announced new management for the stations. Henry “Hank” Price, a highly recognised broadcast industry veteran who has served since 2000 as president and general manager of Hearst’s WXII-TV, the NBC affiliate in the Greensboro/Winston-Salem, N.C., TV market, will move to WVTM in the same role. His successor at WXII-TV will be announced at a later date. Timothy J. (Tim) Morrissey, most recently president and general manager of WCNC-TV, the Gannett-owned NBC affiliate in Charlotte, N.C., will become president and general manager of WJCL; the move marks a return to Hearst for Morrissey, who in the mid-1980s served as news director at Hearst’s WISN-TV in Milwaukee.
” Jordan Wertlieb, president, Hearst Television Inc., said. “Television stations with strong news brands attract the largest audiences. A dedication to quality local programming and community service will be our focus as we grow our audience in the region. Hank and Tim exemplify that dedication.”
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc has acquired Osprey Publishing Ltd, the Oxford-based military and natural history publisher, from private equity ownership, principally The Third Alcuin Fund LP, a fund managed by Alcuin Capital Partners LLP. The acquisition values Osprey at £4.6 million: £3.2 million paid in cash on completion plus 869,054 newly issued Bloomsbury Ordinary shares to the value of £1.4 million, which constitute approximately 1.2 per cent. of Bloomsbury’s outstanding share capital. Osprey had approximately £0.3 million of cash at the time of acquisition.
Osprey generated £7 million of revenue and £0.3 million of adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation in the year ended 31 December 2013. Gross assets at that date were £4.5 million. There are opportunities for profit enhancements following the integration of the business into Bloomsbury. The acquisition is expected to be immediately earnings enhancing contributing approximately £1.0 million of revenue to Bloomsbury in the year ending 28 February 2015.
The Osprey Group consists of Osprey Military, Heritage and Custom Publishing, and British Wildlife Press. Osprey Publishing is the world’s best known military history brand, publishing in trademark series, in both print and e-book formats, titles with international appeal, covering history from ancient times to the modern day. The Military division is the largest part of Osprey with a significant subscriber database. British Wildlife Publishing publishes high quality books and the British Wildlife magazine for lovers of the natural world. Last year Osprey Group published 212 titles in addition to its British Wildlife magazine. Osprey owns the copyright over the majority of its titles. Over 50 per cent. of Osprey’s revenue is generated outside the UK, principally in the US. The business will operate within Bloomsbury’s Special Interest Publishing, a part of the Adult division.
Nigel Newton, Chief Executive of Bloomsbury commented:
“The acquisition of Osprey increases our presence in niche special interest markets. It is complementary to, and will substantially enhance, our existing lists; in particular increasing the division’s expertise in natural history and military history publishing, as well as international sales.”
BigDecisions.com aims to help Indian consumers make smarter financial decisions through interactive, decision-making tools powered by sophisticated algorithms and data. Its mission is to provide a platform to deliver unbiased information and analysis to consumers on topics ranging from life and health insurance and retirement planning to providing for a child’s education or buying and renting real estate.
“Our latest investment builds on our abiding belief that a digital India needs more trusted, reliable and independent data,” said Robert Thomson, Chief Executive of News Corp. “BigDecisions.com will help Indians make the most important decisions by using accurate information tailored to their personal needs. This platform will be high quality, privacy-protected and easy-to-use.”
The acquisition of BigDecisions.com includes the site’s parent company, FinDirect Services Pvt Ltd.
The investment follows News Corp’s acquisition in November of a 25% stake in PropTiger.com, a residential real estate platform that also provides accurate and independent data and information to India’s homebuyers. News Corp’s other operations in India include Dow Jones, The Wall Street Journal, Factiva and HarperCollins Publishers businesses.
Started in early 2013 by Manish Shah and Gaurav Roy, and operating until recently as bigdecisions.in.Following the acquisition, both co-founders will help oversee a significant expansion of the Mumbai-based BigDecisions.com team as well as its consumer offerings. They will report to Raju Narisetti, News Corp Senior Vice President, Strategy.
WPP is to acquire the assets of Maka Marketing Digital S.A. de C.V. and Clarus Digital S.A. de C.V. (“Clarus”), a digital marketing agency in Mexico.
Clarus’ 2014 revenues should reach MXN$ 108 million. Clients include Telcel, Citi-Banamex, Aeromexico, and Sigma Alimentos. The agency, which now employs 112 people, was founded in 2009 and provides full-service digital marketing and media buying capabilities to its clients. It is based in Mexico City.
Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC, the online information and events group, has completed the acquisition of a 15.5% equity stake in New Dealogic for £59.2 million. For the year to December 31, 2013, Dealogic achieved adjusted earnings before interest, depreciation and amortisation of $66.7 million on $152.3 million of revenues, and at that date had gross assets of $127.7 million. The transaction takes effect from December 18.
New Dealogic is a new company incorporated by The Carlyle Group to acquire Dealogic Holdings plc alongside Carlyle and Dealogic’s founders. Euromoney’s investment in New Dealogic has been funded through the sale to New Dealogic of its interests in two businesses, Capital DATA and Capital NET, which Dealogic and Euromoney had operated jointly since the 1980s. The transaction values Euromoney’s participation in these two businesses at $85 million.
Dealogic provides data and analytics, market intelligence and capital markets software solutions to investment banks to help them manage their workflows, assist with deal origination and execution, and optimise productivity across their equity capital markets, fixed income, investment banking and research, sales and trading businesses.
POLITICO, the Washington-based political news organisation, and Axel Springer, the owners of the POLITICO joint venture in Europe, have acquired EUROPEAN VOICE and will rebrand the Brussels publication as POLITICO in the spring of 2015.
The owner and publisher of the EUROPEAN VOICE, Shéhérazade Semsar-de Boisséson, will become managing director of POLITICO’s European operation, in charge of business operations. POLITICO’s European news operation will be led by Executive Editor Matthew Kaminski, a senior journalist and commentator on international affairs with The Wall Street Journal.
POLITICO’s European editorial operations will launch in spring 2015 with a website, POLITICO.EU; a weekly newspaper with circulation in Brussels; conferences and events in Brussels, Paris and Berlin; and a European edition of POLITICO Pro, a subscription-based news service covering major European policy coverage areas, such as financial services, technology, health care and energy.
Kaminski will report to POLITICO co-founder and Editor-in-Chief John F. Harris, who will be overseeing the vision and execution of POLITICO’s European newsroom in his position as chairman of the joint venture’s editorial committee. As editor in chief, Harris will be a regular presence in Brussels as the joint venture takes one of the most influential brands in American journalism to the European arena. Bill Nichols, POLITICO’s editor-at-large, will serve as the joint venture’s founding editor-at-large. Florian Eder, EU correspondent for DIE WELT, will become a managing editor. Carrie Budoff Brown, senior White House reporter for POLITICO, will become associate editor and senior reporter. POLITICO’s Gabe Brotman will oversee strategy and business development.
The EUROPEAN VOICE website, newspaper and events will all be integrated with POLITICO at the time of the spring launch. The joint venture will also take ownership of Paris-based Development Institute International (DII), France’s event promoter in the public affairs space, a business Semsar-de Boisséson co-founded in 1993. DII will continue to operate as a standalone business led by its Managing Director and co-founder Stephane Baudoin.
Semsar-de Boisséson will report to a management committee in which Axel Springer and POLITICO are equally represented.
“We see EUROPEAN VOICE, a familiar and well-respected platform in Brussels, as giving our joint venture an invaluable head start in establishing POLITICO as the new media agenda-setter at this historic moment in European politics,” said Ralph Büchi, President of Axel Springer International. “From the moment we met Shéhérazade, it was clear that her strong personality, energy and experience made her exactly the right person to lead this business.”
21st Century Fox is to acquire true[X] media, a video advertising company that specializes in consumer engagement and on-demand marketing campaigns. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Founded in 2007, with headquarters in Los Angeles and New York, and offices in Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Detroit, true[x] offers online publishers and advertisers a marketing platform for premium content in digital and on-demand environments. The Company’s client list includes Microsoft, Visa, Apple, Disney, Coca-Cola, Kia, Kraft, Macys, Nestle, and Procter & Gamble. Following the acquisition, true[X] will remain a stand-alone business.
“The connections between brands and consumers have continued to evolve within digital video environments, and true[x] is at the center of this vital area of innovation,” said James Murdoch, Co-COO of 21st Century Fox. “We’re thrilled at the opportunity to have true[x]’s talented team work with us as we set out together to create new experiences in what we believe is a very exciting time in digital video.”
Social media monitoring business Brandwatch, which raised $22 million in May this year, has acquired PeerIndex, a London-based company providing social media analytics based on footprints from use of major social media services. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. According to TechCrunch, it was done mostly for shares in Brandwatch, with some cash.
PeerIndex was founded in 2010 by Azeem Azhar. The company has raised a total of £5 million.
Writing in the Brandwatch blog, Giles Palmer, CEO of Brandwatch said:
“Until now, however, it has not been a very deep tool for understanding audiences – the people who create, read and share content. As we thought about this and started to piece together our ideas for how we could develop data and systems that would bring this fascinating information to light, I happened to be speaking at an event with Azeem Azhar.
As we talked, I became acutely aware that PeerIndex were years ahead of us in their understanding and technology for influencer analytics and mapping.
I thought that if we could add their technology and know-how into Brandwatch, we’d be able to create something that doesn’t exist in the market today.”
Fusion DigiNet is brought to you by “Fusion Corporate Partners” the sector specialist corporate finance advisory firm specialising in the sale of middle-market companies with transactional values ranging from £5 million to £100 million.
ALM, owner of The American Lawyer and The National Law Journal and other titles, is to acquire Summit Professional Networks, the publisher of Investment Advisor and several insurance and legal publications including National Underwriter and InsideCounsel. The deal also includes Judy Diamond Associates, a provider of prospecting tools and data within the benefits industry.
This is the second acquisition by ALM in two months. ALM acquired Kennedy Consulting Research & Advisory in December.
![true[x] media](https://fusiondiginet.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/truex-media.jpg){kind=small}
Fusion Corporate Partners 
You must be logged in to post a comment.