More Deals Could Be On Way For ALM Media

By Jaewon Kang, excerpt from TheDeal.com, Dec. 31, 2014

Even as ALM Media Properties LLC nears completing its first deal under new private equity backer Wasserstein & Co. LP, the New York media house is evaluating more acquisitions in the professional services industry.

In December, ALM Media acquired Kennedy Consulting Research & Advisory from Bloomberg LP subsidiary Kennedy Information LLC. ALM and Kennedy did not disclose financial terms of the latest transaction. The deal includes Consulting Magazine and Kennedy’s career services business.

"We saw a big opportunity to leverage, to combine the resources that we have in our intelligence group with what they have," said Jeff Litvack, president of ALM’s legal intelligence and advisory division, adding that while ALM and Kennedy Consulting both produce market data, the latter also provides context around the data itself.

While the Kennedy deal likely is small in size, it highlights ALM’s desire to tap into other industries adjacent to the legal market, said Dan Strempel, a senior analyst at Simba Information, a division of Market Research Group LLC.

"It makes sense for them to broaden their audience. Competition is tough," Strempel said, adding that while players such as Reed Elsevier NV (ENL)’s LexisNexis and Thomson Reuters Corp. (TRI) have their flagship databases that "every lawyer has to use," ALM doesn’t have such dominance in the legal publishing market.

The publisher of American Lawyer and National Law Journal will continue to be acquisitive, Litvack said, adding that ALM ultimately wants to scoop up companies with positive EBITDA that are leaders in their respective markets and present opportunities for synergies.