Lessons of ABRY Partners and F+W Publications: An Acquisition Case Study
Lessons of ABRY Partners and F+W Publications: An Acquisition Case Study
Publications
An Acquisition case study
Agenda
1. Introduction
2. Description of the companies and their M&A
3. The transaction
4. The investigation
5. Questions
6. Conclusions
1. Introduction
$500 million
2. F+W Publications (acquired
firm)
• publisher of periodicals and books
• book clubs, conferences, trade shows, websites
• acquired by Providence Equity Partners in
2002 for $130m
• revenues 2002 - $106m
• 2004 - $250 m
• sold to ABRY in 2005 for $500m
2. ABRY Partners (buyer)
• Private Equity firm
• founded in 1989 by Andrew Banks & Royce
Yudkoff
• Focused on media & communications industry
• target investments $20m - $100m
• by 2005 had $2,1 billion under management
from limited partners
• bought FW Publications for $500m in 2005
2. Providence Equity Partner
(seller)
• Private Equity firm
• Focused on media & communications industry
• by 2005 had $9 billion under management from
limited partners
• target investments $20m - $500m
• 2002-2004 - invested $150m in F+W Publications
• bought FW Publications for $130m in 2002
• sold FW Publications to ABRY
3. The transaction
4. Results of the investigation