UBM buys Pyramid Research & Trade shows; reports first-half results

Business Publisher, August 17, 2008

TechWeb (San Francisco, CA), a producer of information, events and online resources for the business technology market and a unit of United Business Media (UBM; London), has acquired Pyramid Research (Cambridge, MA) from its shareholders for $8 million in cash.

Pyramid is a provider of subscription market information, analysis and forecasting services to the global telecommunications industry. Its subscription services, based on its own proprietary quantitative data drawn from over 70 national markets worldwide, are targeted to telecom network infrastructure providers and telecom technology suppliers, particularly those in emerging markets. Products include market perspectives, next generation perspectives, forecasts, research reports and country intelligence reports.

More than two-thirds of Pyramid's sales are made outside the U.S. The company had 2007 revenues of approximately $7.6 million. UBM said the acquired company is complementary to those of TechWeb's existing telecoms industry market research unit, Heavy Reading (New York) and provides an ideal platform for the internationalization of the Heavy Reading product portfolio.

TechWeb produces a wide range of events, publications and services, including "InformationWeek," "MSDN Magazine," "Insurance & Technology" and "TechNet" magazine.

Also, UBM's Live Media (London) unit, formerly CMP Information, has acquired four trade shows in three different deals for a total of [pounds sterling] 4.7 million in cash.

UBM has purchased the Sleep Event and the Arc Show, two high-end interior design tradeshows, from their individual shareholders (London). The Sleep Event is targeted to hotel owners, operators, designers, architects, investors, developers and suppliers to the industry. The Arc Show is a lighting event for the architectural, retail and commercial lighting sectors.

UBM has also acquired a 50% stake in Securex (Johannesburg), a South African security tradeshow, from Reach Exhibitions, part of Andry Montgomery (London). Live Media and Andry Montgomery will establish a joint venture company in South Africa to own and manage the show, which generated revenues of approximately [pounds sterling] 400,000. Finally, UBM has acquired the International Direct Marketing Fair from Reed Elsevier (IDMF; London). IDMF focuses on the direct marketing industry and generated [pounds sterling] 1.3 million in revenue in 2008.

UBM reported six-month revenues of [pounds sterling] 445.6 million, an increase of 10.4% over the [pounds sterling] 403.5 million reported in the same period in 2007. Group operating profit rose 24.8%, going from [pounds sterling] 60.4 million last year to [pounds sterling] 75.4 million in the first six months of 2008. UBM said that its four technology businesses had an increase of 29% ([pounds sterling] 21.1 million) in profits and that its CMPMedica unit had a 44% increase in profits (17.3 million [pounds sterling]).