The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. is pleased to announce that it has represented:

Commonwealth Business Media, the premier provider of business intelligence for the international trade and transportation industry, in its sale to United Business Media, a leading global business information company, for $152 million.

Commonwealth Business Media (Commonwealth) was founded, as management, supported by Bariston Partners and RFE Investment Partners, led a buyout of Primedia Information’s Directory Group in October 2000.

The acquisition of Commonwealth provides United Business Media (UBM) with a strong position in a new vertical, the international trade and transportation business intelligence market.

Alan Glass, Chairman & CEO, Commonwealth Business Media: Commonwealth (www.cbizmedia.com) was a dream that our management team very much wanted to realize when the opportunity presented itself in mid-2000. I had spent the better part of the prior 20 years acquiring companies for Thomson and Primedia, and I felt it was time for me to run my own company. Through a prominent media entrepreneur, I was introduced to Dave Barry and Martin Madden of Bariston Partners, who then introduced me to Mike Foster and RFE.

Michael Foster, Managing Director, RFE Investment Partners: We partnered with Alan Glass to acquire the Directories business from Primedia in October 2000 through the good offices of Bariston Partners. A year later, Commonwealth acquired the Trade and Transportation assets from The Economist Group. Our primary interest was the PIERS database of import and export data that is unique in its volume and quality and is highly prized by companies in that industry. While the legacy products, such as the 179 year old Journal of Commerce, provided invaluable links to the industry, the database products were the crown jewel in what had became a $50 million revenue business barely a year after the formation of Commonwealth.

Alan Glass: Our interests and those of our investors were tightly aligned, enabling us to execute a strategy that resulted in a successful sale after six years. We maintained a “quiet, under the radar” approach that we successfully used to acquire businesses and then, we supported those acquisitions with the right level of investment for them to flourish. Every business we acquired showed demonstrable success as a result of this strategy.

Mike Foster: Throughout the period of our ownership, Commonwealth’s cash flow was strong, and the company was well supported by its lead bankers, GE and Merrill Lynch. Commonwealth’s organic growth in EBITDA was very attractive, due largely to the projected growth in PIERS and the acquisition of BACK Aviation, a database company, in 2005.

Alan Glass: With strong cash flow metrics, we were able to invest in our businesses while servicing our debt. We remained true to our core market, international trade and transportation, which exhibits very high growth rates and is projected to continue growing strongly. We were determined to build a data and subscription revenue business to lessen our dependence on advertising. When we started the company in 2000, over 75% of our revenue was generated from advertising. Today, nearly 65% of our revenue is derived from data sales and subscription based revenue. The result is that we built extraordinary shareholder value, created an exciting work environment and developed terrific employees.

Mike Foster: At the end of 2005, we decided to exit the business to take advantage of the strong M&A market, and we hired JEGI to help us with the sale process. While we had considerable interest from many well-qualified buyers, UBM was keen to acquire a new business unit that had significant organic and acquisition growth prospects and could also leverage UBM’s international coverage. Alan will continue to run the business as its President & CEO reporting to David Levin, CEO of UBM.

Alan Glass: Becoming part of UBM is an exciting chapter in our development. UBM’s strategic thinking is clearly aligned with our goals for Commonwealth, and its resources are phenomenal. We expect the growth and development of Commonwealth’s assets to be realized much faster under UBM’s ownership, than if we continued as a standalone operation.