Publisher Buys Association Show Organizer
By Michael Hart -- Tradeshow Week, 2/5/2007
A publisher bought an event organizer, a major tradeshow company bought a little more of another one, and a design magazine sold a conference in a mergers-and-acquisitions market that took a bit of a breather in early 2007, compared to the torrid pace in the fourth quarter of last year.
Naylor, a Gainesville, Fla.-based media company that provides print and online publishing services primarily to associations, has bought Convention Management Group, a Fairfax, Va.-based event management company that also primarily focuses on the association market.
CMG manages two Tradeshow Week 200 events — the American Meat Institute Intl. Meat, Poultry and Seafood Exposition (No. 99 on the most recent TSW 200) and Food, Dairy & Beverage Exposition (No. 128) — along with several other smaller tradeshows and corporate events.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Naylor provides what its president and CEO, Alex DeBarr, called "turnkey print and online services" for about 430 associations.
"It's a natural fit," DeBarr said. His company can now provide both publishing and event management services to clients. "This will give us the capability to go to associations and say, 'We'll manage your existing event, we'll launch one for you, or we might even acquire one for you.'"
CMG was privately owned by its president, Michael Muldoon, who becomes Naylor's executive vice president and will manage its event group along with all 15 of his employees.
Clarity Partners and ZelnickMedia own Naylor.
Along with the two TSW 200 shows, CMG also manages the American Beverage Assn.'s InterBev, the United Motorcoach Assn.'s Motorcoach Expo and the Construction Specification Institute's CSI Show & Convention at Construct America.
Early last month, the Daily Mail and General Trust, parent company of dmg world media, purchased a 9-percent stake in the White Plains, N.Y.-based George Little Management for $21 million.
Prior to the acquisition, Daily Mail owned a 40-percent interest in GLM. Consequently, the deal gives Daily Mail a 49-percent interest in the company. According to a pre-arranged agreement, Daily Mail is expected to buy another 2-percent interest in GLM by 2010, making it the majority shareholder, and the remaining 49 percent of the company by 2014.
Representatives of dmg world media were not available for comment by press time.
GLM produces more than 50 annual tradeshows, at least 11 of them "on behalf of dmg world media."
Western Interiors and Design has sold its Western Design Conference to Powder Mountain Press. The Jackson Hole, Wyo.-based Western Interiors and Design bought the conference, held annually in Cody, Wyo., in 2003 and produced it for the past four years.
Terms were not disclosed.
Western Interiors and Design CEO Carol Decker said the conference didn't fit with the company's strategy, which includes four other interior design events in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Scottsdale, Ariz.
"It is important to our advertisers and exhibitors that we focus on major metropolitan markets as we develop our conference business," Decker said.
The Driggs, Idaho-based Powder Mountain Press, like Western Interiors and Design, publishes a number of magazines that focus on Western lifestyles. However, they are primarily regional publications of greatest interest to readers in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
