2002-10-17 With eleven deals in 2002, Berkery, Noyes & Co. leads M&A; in down market, publishing & media specialist defies the trend

NEW YORK, Oct. 17, 2002 — Berkery, Noyes & Co. announces the close of its eleventh transaction in 2002, defying the broader slowdown in mergers and acquisitions in the publishing and media market.

Advanstar Communications, Inc. acquired HT–the Magazine for Healthcare Travel Professionals and HT’s website, www.healthcaretraveler.com, from Niche Publishing, Inc. Berkery, Noyes & Co. represented the seller in the transaction – the eleventh time in 2002 that it has successfully assisted clients with the sale of an information-related business.

"There are three keys to succeeding in a down market," said Joseph W. Berkery, president of the publishing and media mergers and acquisitions firm. "Market concentration, creativity and tenacity." Berkery credits his firm’s "specific focus on the information market, its ability to recognize strategic opportunity for buyers and sellers, and its dogged persistence in seeing a transaction through to closing," as the reasons why his firm prospers in the most challenging M&A environment in recent memory.

According to Joseph Berkery, broad-based investment banks are at a disadvantage in a prolonged market downturn, when successful transactions often depend on an intimate knowledge of a market segment and the less obvious transaction partners.

"In an up cycle, it’s relatively easy to find buyers and to agree on acceptable terms. When things are tight, as they have been throughout 2002, you have to dig deeper, work harder and be more resourceful. Specialized firms are better organized to work that way," commented Berkery.

In addition to the HT magazine transaction, Berkery, Noyes managed the sale of:

  • Marketing Services Mexicana to Cegedim Group
  • DDC Publishing to Pearson Education
  • Certain assets of PH Direct to Aspen Publishers
  • Selected assets of Thomson Learning to John Wiley & Sons
  • Ariel Research Corporation to Eastman Chemical Company
  • CAP (McGraw-Hill) to 2020 Technologies
  • Educators Publishing Service to Delta Education
  • Certain assets of PH Direct to John Wiley & Sons
  • Selected assets of Thomson Learning to Oxford University Press
  • Wheeler Publishing, Inc. to The Gale Group

In addition to the above-mentioned transactions, the firm expects to close another four transactions before year-end.

Founded in 1980, Berkery, Noyes & Co. clients range from small firms, often seeking a buyer, to most of the major international information companies, who use the firm’s expertise in locating, analyzing and negotiating with acquisition candidates, as well as in managing divestitures. The firm operates with a staff of twenty-two professionals serving the information and publishing industry from offices in New York, Boston, and San Francisco. https://www.berkerynoyes.com