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Veronis Suhler Stevenson and William Cobert Team Up to Pursue Investments in Trade Events and Other Business-to-Business Media

Posted on: Wednesday, 19 September 2007, 09:01 CDT

Veronis Suhler Stevenson ("VSS"), a leading private equity investment firm focused on media and related industries, and William Cobert, former CEO of Canon Communications, today announced that they have entered into a relationship to acquire trade events, conferences, magazines, B2B eMedia businesses and related information properties in the business-to-business media sector.

Cobert is a well-known and highly accomplished leader in business-to-business media, with over 30 years of industry experience. Prior to founding EBITDA Media, a private holding company for business-to-business media investments, he was the long-time CEO of Canon Communications, a leading producer of print publications, tradeshows and digital media. Canon was a portfolio company of VSS from 1996 until its sale in 2005.

"I worked very closely with VSS for almost ten years as the CEO of one of their platform portfolio companies, and I have personally seen the value they add as a financial partner," said Cobert. "With their deep industry knowledge and significant operating experience, they are able to provide tremendous strategic and financial support. I am looking forward to our new partnership and working with them to identify investment opportunities in a variety of market sectors."

"We are believers in the long-term growth of business-to-business media, and we are very pleased to be working with Bill Cobert again," added Hal Greenberg, a Managing Director of VSS. "He is an outstanding executive and has proven himself as an operator who can successfully execute a 'buy and build' strategy. The experience and expertise of VSS, coupled with Bill's know-how, should make a highly successful combination."

VSS has made numerous investments in the tradeshow and business publishing segments of the media industry, including Advanstar Communications, Hanley Wood, Canon Communications, Ascend Media, Access Intelligence, The Official Information Company and Red 7 Media in the U. S., and Centaur Communications, ITE Group plc, and Schofield Media in Europe. According to the just released 2007 edition of the VSS Communications Industry Forecast, business-to-business media is forecast to grow at 6.0% over the next 5 years and trade shows are expected to overtake print as the largest business-to-business sub segment in 2008.

About Veronis Suhler Stevenson

Veronis Suhler Stevenson (www.vss.com) is a private equity firm that invests buyout and structured capital funds in the media, communications, information and education industries in North America and Europe. VSS provides capital for buyouts, recapitalizations, growth financings and strategic acquisitions to companies and management teams, with a goal to build companies both organically and through a focused add-on acquisition program. To date, VSS equity and structured capital funds have invested in over 54 platform companies, which have in turn completed over 230 add-on acquisitions resulting in a portfolio with realized and unrealized enterprise values in excess of $12 billion.

About EBITDA Media LLC

EBITDA Media LLC is a private holding company investing in B-to-B media properties, including trade events, conferences and educational forums, magazines and publications, and digital media. EBITDA Media most recently acquired Green Media Enterprises, producers of the Green West and Green East trade events, the only all-inclusive tradeshows for the green marketplace.

Source: Business Wire

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