VNU, Industry Suppliers Make Year-end Deals
Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 1/8/2007
Several industry firms went shopping this holiday season and made deals to buy, sell or merge their entities.
VNU Group announced Dec. 18 that it had agreed to sell its Business Media Europe division to 3i, a London-based private equity and venture capital firm. Two of the BME exhibition divisions — VNU Exhibitions U.K. (formerly Imark Communications) and Bias Group in Italy — will be included in the sale. The company will not sell VNU Exhibitions Europe (a joint venture with Royal Dutch Jaarbeurs) or VNU Exhibitions Asia.
VNU Exhibitions U.K. currently produces several events for the information technology and telecommunications industries. They include the Online Information Exhibition & Conference, Comms Channel Expo, Office Technology Expo and Technology Retailer Show. The Bias Group specializes in industrial automation events.
VNU Group, based in Haarlem, the Netherlands, and New York, had been exploring strategic alternatives for BME since October.
The sale to 3i will include BME's operations in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Germany and Belgium. A sale of BME's French division was also under discussion as of press time.
Also on Dec. 18, VNU Group announced it would begin a "major corporate transformation" beginning last week. Its subsidiary VNU Business Media USA in November said it would complete sweeping structural changes by the beginning of this year, becoming what it called "an integrated information and marketing services business."
The New York-based firm combined three separate divisions — VNU Business Publications, VNU Expositions and VNU eMedia & Information Marketing — into one entity with six market-focused units defined by the audiences they serve.
Meanwhile, a few industry suppliers were also busy making buys and merging.
On Dec. 13, A.C.T., producer of floor plan management software Expocad, revealed that it had acquired AreaGraph Solutions.
AreaGraph provides a drag-and-drop graphics program for layouts of exhibit components, utilities management, and meeting and banquet rooms. The AreaGraph interface will integrate directly with Expocad or Expocad Contractor for Autocad.
On Dec. 1, the meeting and event management technology firms Tradeshow Multimedia Inc. and Event Ready merged to form EventReady/TMI.
