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Films Media Group
Press Release May '07 (PDF)
Infobase Publishing Announces Acquisition of Films Media Group
NEW YORK, NY, May 29, 2007 – Infobase Publishing Company (Infobase)
announced today that it has acquired the Films Media Group (FMG) from PRIMEDIA
Inc. FMG is a leading source of high-quality educational video and multimedia
programs for schools, colleges, libraries, the medical community, and other
institutions. Infobase is an educational media company that owns such well-known
reference publishing imprints as Facts On File, Chelsea House, Ferguson Publishing,
and Bloom’s Literary Criticism. Infobase is a portfolio company investment of Veronis
Suhler Stevenson, a private equity firm that invests in the media, information, and
education industries.
FMG offers more than 12,000 titles on a wide variety of topics, available in formats
ranging from DVD to digital to VHS. The company is comprised of Films for the
Humanities and Sciences (FFH&S), Cambridge Educational, Meridian Education,
and Shopware. The wide variety of content ranges from art, computer science,
literature, and consumer science to teacher education, social studies, psychology,
legal studies, and much more.
"There are many similarities between our two businesses," said Mark McDonnell,
president of Infobase. "From an operational and a strategic standpoint, we see
FMG as an ideal fit for us. The educational market—the market we serve—is looking
for better, more integrated learning tools and solutions."
"Combine Facts On File's outstanding print and database content with FMG's
extensive video content, and what emerges is a very impressive set of resources
for schools and libraries,"
McDonnell continued. "We are particularly excited about
the synergies that exist between our existing online reference products and FMG's
video content. We see this as the natural progression of our expanding publishing program."
With some of its imprints dating back to 1941, Infobase is a leading publisher of
curriculum-based print and online reference material for the school and library
markets. In 2003, Infobase acquired Ferguson Publishing, a career reference
publisher, and in 2005, acquired Chelsea House, a 30-year-old publisher of
curriculum-based, nonfiction books for the school and library market.
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About PRIMEDIA PRIMEDIA Inc. is the parent company of Consumer Source Inc., the
#1 publisher and distributor of free consumer guides in the U.S. with Apartment
Guide, Auto Guide, and New Home Guide, distributing free consumer publications
through its proprietary distribution network, DistribuTech, in more than 60,000
locations. Consumer Source owns and operates leading Web sites including
ApartmentGuide.com, AutoGuide.com, NewHomeGuide.com, and America's largest
online single-unit rental property business, comprised of RentClicks.com,
RentalHouses.com, HomeRentalAds.com, and Rentals.com.
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 more than 50 platform companies,
which have in turn completed more than 220 add-on acquisitions resulting in a
portfolio with realized and unrealized enterprise values in excess of $12 billion.
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