CloserStill Media Acquires eLearning Guild

CloserStill Media has acquired a majority stake in Focuszone Media, Inc., operating as The eLearning Guild, for an undisclosed sum.   The eLearning Guild has a 40,000+ membership community of learning and development professionals in the United States and around the world.

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Blackstone acquires NEC Group

Private Equity Funds managed by Blackstone announce the acquisition of the National Exhibition Centre Group , a leading live events venue operator in the UK, from LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group.

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Johnson Press puts itself up for sale

Johnston Press, which owns titles include the i newspaper, the Scotsman and the Yorkshire Post, has put itself up for sale. The beleaguered publisher, which owns almost 200 regional newspapers, had become bogged down in negotiations with bondholders over a £220m refinancing due in June that it cannot afford.

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Skift to acquire Airline Weekly from its founders

Skift have announced that they are acquiring the 14-year old newsletter Airline Weekly and its related assets. AW is a subscription-only publication, built by the original team of Jay Shabat, Seth Kaplan, and Jason Cottrell into a highly influential global read consumed by CEOs and senior executives in the airlines sector. It’s paid for by readers who want a more interesting, deeper, and comprehensive read about the ins and outs of the airline business. We will build on its expertise to both deepen and expand it in various ways.

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ITE acquires Mining Indaba from Euromoney for £30.1m

ITE, one of the world’s leading organisers of international exhibitions and conferences, today announces that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the business and assets relating to Mining Indaba from Euromoney Institutional Investor for £30.1 million, on a cash-free, debt-free basis and subject to normalised working capital

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Huntsworth plc has entered into a conditional agreement to acquire 80% of Navience Healthcare Solutions LLC

Huntsworth plc, the healthcare and communications group, today announces  it has entered into a conditional agreement to acquire 80% of Navience Healthcare Solutions LLC (“Navience”), an independent payer advisory and marketing agency, for an initial cash consideration of $24m (the “Initial Consideration”). It is intended that the Initial Consideration will be funded by a placing of new ordinary shares in the capital of the Company (the “Placing”), to raise approximately £18m, with any proceeds in excess of the Initial Consideration to be used to pay expenses relating to the acquisition and the Placing.

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DC Thomson acquires Aceville Publications

DC Thomson Media has announced the acquisition of Aceville Publications, a Colchester based magazine publisher. This is the largest acquisition within the Media business for a number of years and will materially change the landscape for DC Thomson Media.

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CloserStill Media could go up for sale for £300m

Accrording to The Daily Mail the company that runs the London Vet Show and a number of other events, could be about to change hands for up to £300million amid a frenzied year of buyouts in the events and exhibitions sector. City sources said the private equity owners of CloserStill Media have appointed bankers from DC Advisory Partners to find a buyer for the business. 

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Comcast wins auction for Sky with £30.6bn bid

Comcast has triumphed over 21st Century Fox and Walt Disney in the auction for Sky with a £30.6bn bid in a deal that will redraw the global media landscape. Comcast’s £17.28 a share bid beat a rival £15.67 a share bid from Fox, which was backed by Disney, and came in the third and final round of an auction when each bidder was asked to make their best offer for the broadcaster. The Comcast offer values Sky at almost £4bn more than the Disney-Fox bid

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Questex Sold to PE Firm MidOcean Partners

Questex, the Newton, Mass.-based publisher and trade show producer serving the travel-hospitality and technology spaces, among others, has been acquired by private equity firm MidOcean Partners from Shamrock Capital, which had owned the company since 2014. Financial terms were not disclosed.

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Emerald Expositions acquires TotalTech from EH Media for US$28m

Emerald Expositions Events, Inc. (NYSE:EEX) (“Emerald”), a leading U.S. business-to-business trade show, event and conference producer, today announced the acquisition of a leading technology event and a group of complementary technology intelligence brands from EH Media for approximately $28 million in cash. The acquired brands have delivered impressive organic growth in recent years, driven by increases in digital revenues, now representing approximately half of total revenues, as well as solid event revenue growth.

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ITE to dispose of non-core events in Russia

ITE Group plc today announces the proposed disposal of ITE Expo LLC (“ITE Expo”), the operating company for 56 of the Group’s Non-Core, regionally-focused, smaller events in Russia, to Shtab-Expo LLC (the “Purchaser) (the “Transaction”). These events comprise a significant proportion of the Group’s Non-Core assets in Russia. This disposal is a major step in delivering a key pillar of the Group’s Transformation and Growth (TAG) programme to focus on must-attend International events by actively managing its portfolio.

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