Jupitermedia Corp. said yesterday that it will sell the ClickZ.com Network, which includes SearchEngineWatch.com, and its Search Engine Strategies trade shows to Incisive Media for $43 million.
The next SES conference is Aug. 8-11 in San Jose, CA. Other shows are in Chicago, London, Munich, New York, Stockholm, Tokyo and Toronto.
Incisive, a business information provider, benefits by getting involved in the profitable search marketing category, after focusing on the retail investment, insurance, mortgage, private equity and photographic markets.
The deal is expected to close this month.
Incisive, London, said it will use the acquisition to expand into the U.S. business-to-business publishing market and to expand the SES conferences into other markets.
Jupitermedia's divesting of the trade shows and ClickZ Network is part of its strategy to focus on its rapidly growing JupiterImages division, which specializes in selling commercial images. The $43 million gives Jupitermedia greater buying power for more image company acquisitions, chairman/CEO Alan Meckler said. JupiterImages acquired PictureArts Corp. in early July for $63.2 million.
In a conference call yesterday, Meckler told industry analysts that the money would be used to pay down some of the company's debt. Jupitermedia owes $80 million, mostly from the recent purchases of stock photography companies including Comstock, PictureArts and Creatas.
Jupitermedia divisions include JupiterWeb, which operates Internet.com, EarthWeb.com and several other sites; JupiterResearch; and JupiterEvents, in addition to JupiterImages.
The deal is the second major acquisition of an Internet-related trade show this year. In January, DMG World Media bought Ad:tech from JD Events. DMG is a wholly owned subsidiary of Daily Mail & General Trust, London.
Christine Blank covers online marketing and advertising, including e-mail marketing and paid search, for DM News and DMNews.com. To keep up with the latest developments in these areas, subscribe to our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters by visiting www.dmnews.com/newsletters
