M&A Activity Update: No Damper on This Market

JULY 5: GES Exposition Services, a subsidiary of Viad, buys Poitras Exposition Services, the largest exhibition services company in Quebec City. In addition to contractor services, Poitras provides furnishings, exhibits and design, graphics and material handling services. GES Canada also has operations in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

JULY 6: Reed Exhibitions sells Reed Messen (Schweiz) in Switzerland to Messe Schweiz and Urs A. Ingold, the previous president of Reed Messen. Reed Messen has four shows: IFAS, medical and hospital equipment; PRODEX, machine tools, tools and production measurement; SICHERHEIT, fire, safety and security; and Orbit-iEX, business solutions.

JULY 6: IIR Exhibitions, part of the Institute for Intl. Research, acquires the business assets of HQ Link, an exhibition organizer in Asia. The acquisition includes three series of shows: heating and air conditioning events in Singapore, China, Vietnam and India; maritime events in China, Vietnam and Malaysia; and the Career & Education exhibition in Singapore. The acquisitions double IIR Exhibitions' portfolio in Asia. IIR is a division of Informa.

JULY 11: Florida-based PRI Productions snags tradeshow contractor Southeastern Decorators for an undisclosed amount. Southeastern Decorators provides tradeshow services, including equipment rentals and staging. PRI, which has about 55 full-time employees, will add six more.

JULY 12: IIR scoops up 10 technology conferences and five online private communities, along with related Web properties, from Shared Insights. Some of the conferences are Business Process Management Spring & Fall; Community 2.0 Conference; Customer Contact Conference; and Portals, Collaboration & Content Spring & Fall.

JULY 12: Tarsus Group buys DMS Group, which owns and operates U.S.-based Web site www.CVBHotRates.com, as well as Interworks Limited, which runs another U.K.-based Web site, www.exhibitions.co.uk. Tarsus and its online division, Caroo Media, already have a number of online products serving the exhibition industry, such as www.venues.org.uk and www.tsnn.com.

JULY 24: Reed Exhibitions Australia, owner of the Australian National Manufacturing Week, purchases the Manufacturing Technology InFocus exhibition from Diversified Exhibitions Australia. Reed will incorporate the exhibition, as well as its associated events, Automate, Austronics and Electrix, into NMW next year at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, May 27–30.

JULY 27: Crain Communications expands further into the worldwide plastics industry with its acquisition of U.K.-based Emap Communications' polymer publications and events. The deal includes two publications, Plastics & Rubber Weekly and European Plastics News, as well as the Plastics Design & Moulding exhibition and a dozen European conferences. The exhibition targets U.K. designers, specifiers and manufacturers of plastic products.

JULY 30: The ASI Advantages Roadshow, run by The ASI Show, buys PromoShows' East Coast showcases: the East Coast Business Gifts and Promotional Products Showcase and East Coast Super Showcase. ASI merges them with the Advantages Roadshow Northeast Week that ran Sept. 17–21 and visited Baltimore, Philadelphia, Northern New Jersey, Long Island and New York City.

AUG. 1: CMP Technology, a subsidiary of United Business Media, buys Semiconductor Insights, based in Ottawa, Canada, for $26 million. Semiconductor Insights specializes in patent analysis and intellectual property issues and will become part of CMP's Electronics Group portfolio. The deal includes intellectual property events for attorneys and others working to safeguard companies' intellectual property assets.

AUG. 14: Norwalk, Conn.-based Business Journals purchases West Coast Exclusive, a semiannual men's show in Las Vegas. The show runs concurrently with MAGIC Marketplace during what's loosely referred to as fashion week, the last week in August and the second week in February. Business Journals phases out the Exclusive and in its place announces new menswear show MRket, to collocate at the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino with its existing shows, AccesoriesTheShow and Moda Las Vegas.

AUG. 16: Questex Media Group acquires Oxford Publishing, producer of food and beverage event "The Show", which includes the Intl. Restaurant Show — Las Vegas, Nightclub & Bar/Beverage Retailer/Beverage & Food Convention & Trade Show and the Intl. Coffee and Tea Expo. All the events will collocate in 2008 at the Las Vegas Convention Center with the HotelWorld Expo and Conference. Oxford Publishing will operate as a subsidiary of Questex Media Group and Ed Meek will continue as CEO and president.

AUG. 20: Paul Mackler and Ken Fisher, business-to-business veterans, form a partnership with Alta Communications, a private-equity investment firm, and buy HMP Communications. Mackler formerly has been both CEO of Cygnus Business Media and president of Reed Exhibitions; Fisher, the former CFO of Cygnus and Wicks Business Information. The deal includes HMP's conference and exhibition, the Symposium on Advanced Wound Care.

AUG. 30: E.J. Krause scoops up another show in Mexico, Plastimagen Mexico, the country's largest plastics industry exhibition. EJK's other shows there include Expo Manufactura, World of Concrete Mexico and Expopack Mexico, which the company manages for the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute. EJK expects Plastimagen Mexico, previously produced by Oprex, to draw 600 exhibitors from 22 countries to Mexico City's Centro Banamex April 8–11.

AUG. 31: BNP Media acquires the Professional Services Division of Ascend Media, which includes the food, beverage and packaging, and gaming groups. BNP plans to combine the food group, based in Deerfield, Ill., with its existing products in the same industry. The Las Vegas-based gaming group includes magazines, Web sites, conferences and tradeshows.

SEPT. 1: Primedia completes the sell-off of its Enthusiast Media division to Source Interlink for close to $2 billion in cash. Primedia will continue to operate Consumer Source, its consumer guides business, that publishes and distributes free print guides across the U.S. In connection with the closing of the sale, Robert Metz becomes president and CEO of Primedia, and Kim Payne takes the CFO post.

SEPT. 3: Canon Communications buys Engel Publishing Partners from Euromoney Institutional Investor. Engel is a B-to-B media company that serves the global pharmaceutical market and has a number of conferences, including Patient-Centered Marketing Conference, the Drug Development Summit and the Manny Awards Program. The deal also includes www.PharmaLive.com, which claims 150,000 unique visitors each month.

SEPT. 5: Tarsus Group makes another buy: SEPIC SAS, a French clothing exhibition company, from the Federation Francaise de la Chaussure ("French shoe association"). SEPIC owns and operates Mod'Amont, for clothing accessories, and Midec, for the shoe industry. Mod'Amont takes place in February and September in Paris, collocated with textile exhibition PremierVision.

SEPT. 11: Technical association PLASA, the Professional Lighting and Sound Assn., purchases the AC Lighting North Trade Show from AC Lighting. The show, based in Northern England, will be under the AC Lighting name next year, then PLASA Events will take over management and ownership. It represents the first in a series of regional events planned by PLASA.

SEPT. 14: United Business Media's U.K.-based business information division, CMP Information, buys Ithaca Holdings for $20.63 million ($29 million). Ithaca operates a portfolio of six business-to-business events and related media. The deal also includes three tradeshows: Internet World, Leisure Industry Week and Service Management Europe.

SEPT. 17: Performance Institute, producer of training programs and policy conferences for public officials, acquires Thompson Publishing Holding, a business-to-business media company that provides users with information to simplify and explain complex regulations. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., Thompson's portfolio includes products and services used by professionals in the fields of human resources, financial services, health care and energy, among others.

SEPT. 24: Tarsus Group scoops up another international company, Mumbai, India-based Label Expositions Private Ltd., which owns the biennial India Label Show. The show is scheduled in New Delhi in December 2008. The 2006 edition spanned 3,600 net square meters (38,750 net square feet) and, according to Tarsus, the Indian label market is growing 18 percent annually.

SEPT. 24: Dmg world media buys the remaining 51-percent stake it did not already have in George Little Management, taking full ownership of the company Oct. 1. The two started their partnership in November 2000, when dmg bought 25 percent of GLM. Since then, GLM has managed dmg's gift tradeshows (the California Gift Show, Vancouver Gift Show and Montreal Gift Show) along with its own portfolio, that includes the New York Intl. Gift Fair, Gourmet Housewares Show and the Intl. Contemporary Furniture Fair. Dmg CEO Mike Cooke becomes chairman and co-president of GLM. At the same time, dmg says it will sell its portfolio of 40 North American consumer home shows.