Year in Review: Financial Players Seal Big Deals

By Margo McCall -- Tradeshow Week, 1/23/2006

Strategic players mostly stood on the sidelines last year, adding a show here and there while letting the private-equity players scoop up the largest deals.

A partnership of J.P. Morgan and Wasserstein & Co. bought Veronis Suhler Stevenson's Hanley Wood for $650 million while Charles McCurdy's Apprise Media, backed by Spectrum Equity Investors, won VSS's Canon Communications for $200 million. Wasserstein also picked up Primedia's business information unit for $385 million, renaming it Prism Business Media. And ABRY Partners bought F&W Publications for $500 million.

A strategic player, T&F Informa, however, was behind the year's largest tradeshow acquisition, the $1.4 billion purchase of IIR Holdings' conferences and exhibitions. It ranked eighth on Jordan Edmiston Group Inc.'s list of the year's 10 largest media deals.

Overall, JEGI tracked 33 exhibition and conference transactions with a valuation of $2.1 billion. That compares with 23 exhibition and conference deals with a $921 million valuation in 2004.

Altogether, 525 media properties with a $55.8 billion valuation changed hands last year, according to JEGI. That is up from the 463 media deals with a total valuation of $29.9 billion in 2004.

First quarter (12)

• Jan. 14: Sparks Exhibits & Environments, a subsidiary of Marlton Technologies, signs agreement to buy the assets of exhibit designer Showtime Enterprises, which had filed for Chapter 11.
• Jan. 24: Dmg world media acquires AD:TECH from JD Events, which bought the series of conferences and exhibitions from Imark in late 2002.
• Feb. 1: Diversified Business Communications acquires the London show Complementary & Natural Healthcare Expo from U.K.-based Bluewater Events.
• Feb. 2: United Business Media purchases Paperloop's Tissue World.
• Feb. 2: Pfingsten Publishing acquires Intl. Investment Conferences and Resource Investor, two companies that produce magazines, conferences and tradeshows.
• Feb. 4: Reed Exhibitions acquires FireTechReno from FireShows of America and plans to merge it with FireRescue Magazine Conference & Expo, which Reed produces with Jems Communications.
• Feb. 16: The Federal Trade Commission gives the go-ahead for MGM Mirage's $7.9-billion cash takeover of Mandalay Resort Group.
• Feb. 17: JD Events acquires IIR Holdings' 18-year-old Symposium on Healthcare Design.
• Feb. 28: Less-than-truckload carrier Yellow Roadway agrees to buy rival USF for nearly $1.4 billion to expand into next-day service.
• March 2: Business-to-business publisher Edgell Communications buys VNU Business Media's Apparel magazine, Web site, electronic newsletter and several live events.
• March 9: Dmg world media acquires the St. Petersburg Suncoast Home & Garden Show, the St. Petersburg Suncoast Home & Remodeling Show and the Tampa/St. Petersburg Home & Patio Show from Florida State Trade Shows.
• March 28: The ASI Show acquires Discovery Traveling Shows' 12 Natl. Market Weeks, the West Coast Business Gift & Promotional Products Showcase and four Client-Distributor Shows.

Second quarter (12)

• April 4: Advanstar Communications sells its information technology and communications, travel and hospitality, beauty, home entertainment and portfolio groups to Questex Media Group for $185 million.
• April 7: Primedia acquires The Auto Interiors Show from VNU Expositions.
• April 12: Charles McCurdy's Apprise Media, backed by Spectrum Equity, purchases Canon Communications from private-equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson for $200 million.
• April 21: Penton Media raises $5.2 million by selling off 70 percent of its stake in PM Germany and 90 percent of its stake in Penton's U.K. operations, which produce Intl. Leisure Industry Week, Internet World U.K. and Service Management Europe.
• April 29: Los Angeles-based Jamison Properties purchases the California Market Center showroom facility in downtown Los Angeles from dmg world media.
• May 12: Caesars Entertainment sells the Reno Hilton, which offers 190,000 square feet of exhibit space, to Nevada-based hotel developer Grand Sierra Resort for $150 million.
• May 26: An investment group led by J.P. Morgan Partners buys Hanley Wood from Veronis Suhler Stevenson for $650 million.
• June 1: T&F Informa buys U.K.-based IIR Holdings, which produces more than 1,400 conferences worldwide, for $1.4 billion.
• June 6: Dmg world media acquires the biennial Bathrooms & Kitchens Expo from Quantum Business Media, along with a supporting magazine, directory and awards show.
• June 22: ABRY Partners acquires F&W Publications, a Cincinnati-based producer of special interest books, magazines, book clubs and consumer expos. Among F&W's events are the Log Home & Timber Frame Expo, MidAmerica Coin Expo.
• June 23: London-based Clarion Events, producer of 39 exhibitions in a variety of sectors, acquires a controlling interest in Amusement Trade Exhibitions, a subsidiary of the British Amusement Catering Trades Assn.
• June 23: Penton Media acquires Kosher World Conference & Expo from Shows Intl. and will collocate it with its Natural Products Expo West, held at the Anaheim Convention Center each March.

Third quarter (16)

• July 5: Cygnus Business Media acquires EMS Expo, three emergency response magazines and their accompanying Web sites from Van Nuys, Calif.-based Summer Communications and Expo Productions.
• July 6: Advanstar Communications adds to its power sports group with the acquisition of the Michigan Motorcycle Show and Motorama events from TBJ Productions, the event-organizing arm of Boco Enterprises.
• July 6: Rock-It Cargo, a Los Angeles-based freight logistics company, buys R.E. Rogers, a Torrance, Calif.-based subsidiary of Rogers Worldwide.
• July 26: TBA Global Events buys the Washington, D.C.-based PGI—The Strategic Event Agency and assumes operation of all its offices and services.
• Aug. 2: Jupitermedia sells its Search Engine Strategies Conference & Expo and ClickZ.com Web sites for $43 million to U.K.-based Incisive Media. The sale marks an exit from the tradeshow business for Jupitermedia.
• Aug. 5: Los Angeles private-equity firm Clarity Partners and Zelnick Media, a stakeholder in Time Life, acquire Naylor Publications, a producer of show guides and other publications for associations.
• Aug. 8: PBI Media Holdings, an entity controlled by Wasserstein & Co. through its U.S. Equity Partners II, purchases Primedia's business information unit for $385 million.
• Aug. 18: United Business Media spends $24 million to acquire the 22-year-old INFORMEX tradeshow from the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Assn. and $27 million to acquire Light Reading, a producer of e-newsletters, webinars and live events in the telecom networking space.
• Aug. 29: Advanstar acquires the 500-exhibitor POOL, held semiannually at Mandalay Bay Convention Center; and the Project Trade Show group of four shows in Las Vegas and New York.
• Aug. 31: PennWell purchases the biennial CMM Intl. Conference & Exposition from Paperloop for an undisclosed amount. The show in 2003 drew 662 exhibitors and 22,436 attendees to a 257,000 net sq. ft. showfloor, earning it a No. 86 rank on the TSW 200.
• Sept. 9: Medical information provider Wolters Kluwer Health acquires Boucher Communications, a producer of five trade journals and a dozen events in the vision care field.
• Sept. 14: Advanstar Communications purchases Petersen Events' Off Road Expo, a 4-year-old consumer event that draws 40,000 attendees and 260 exhibitors to the Fairplex of Pomona, Calif., each October.
• Sept. 15: JD Events acquires IQPC's KioskCom.com.
• Sept. 16: Private-equity firm Wachovia Capital Partners acquires Cincinnati-based regional general service contractor George E. Fern Co. for $70 million.
• Sept. 19: Wachovia buys interest in Champion Exposition Services.
• Sept. 26: Dmg world media expands further into interactive advertising with the purchase of Los Angeles-based iMedia Communications.

Fourth quarter (10)

• Oct. 17: Diversified Business Communications acquires The Super Floral Show and the Administrative Professionals Conference from Boston-based Gainshare Media.
• Oct. 17: The Hauppage, N.Y.-based Rent-A-PC buys Bit-by-Bit in its fourth acquisition in two years.
• Oct. 20: Kuehne + Nagel Intl. agrees to spend $586.7 million to acquire ACR Logistics, creating a global logistics player with 40,000 employees and 760 offices.
• Nov. 1: Wachovia buys Randall Publishing, producer of The Great American Trucking Show.
• Nov. 3: Dmg world media acquires Expressions of Culture, producer of SOFA CHICAGO and SOFA NEW YORK.
• Nov. 22: Planview Exhibits acquires Innovations, a 30-year-old exhibit house.
• Nov. 16: Destination Marketing Assn. Intl. buys the semiannual Destinations Showcase it previously owned from TBA Global Events.
• Nov. 15: CMP Media acquires Seattle-based Black Hat, a producer of information security conferences in Asia, Europe and the United States for $10 million and the Japan Jewellery Fair for $2.7 million.
• Dec. 14: Reed Exhibitions sells InterBev to the American Beverage Assn. Reed purchased the biennial show from the association in 1999 and, after producing it together for three shows, the groups agreed to return InterBev to ABA.
• Dec. 19: The Ventura, Calif.-based Affinity Group acquires 12 shows in the boat, home and garden, recreational vehicle and camping markets from Richmond, Va.-based Royal Productions.