Cygnus Sells Off Rest of Its Portfolio to SouthComm Business Media

January 1, 2015

Nashville-based SouthComm Business Media bought the rest of Cygnus Business Media’s portfolio, including 10 trade shows, 10 publications and five Web sites.

“This transaction represents the remaining business owned by Cygnus Business Media.  This is the fifth and final transaction for this company, concluding a one-and-a-half year process,” said Nick Curci, president of Corporate Solutions.

SouthComm had previously bought from Cygnus 11 publications, seven Web sites. There also was a trade show portion of the sale that consisted of seven events, including Firehouse Expo; Firehouse World Expo; EMS World Expo; EMS Redline; EMS on the Hill; Officer World; and Secured Cities.  

John French, Cygnus CEO, said at the time: “Five years ago, we embarked on a mission to improve Cygnus and return value to our shareholders. During the last several years, the company has worked hard to turn its properties into multi-platform industry-leading brands because we knew one day the company would be sold. With this sale today, we take another step toward that ultimate goal.”

Besides these two sales, the three other ones were the Agriculture Group to American Farm Bureau Federation, which included five trade shows - Minnesota Farmfest, Dakotafest, Amarillo Farm and Ranch Show, Northern Illinois Farm Show and the IDEAg-branded Interconnectivity Conference.: the Heavy Construction and Logistics Groups to AC Business Media; and the Residential Construction Group to SOLA Group.

The five total transactions included 24 trade shows, 36 publications, 17 Web sites, proprietary software products and the corporate office building in Ft. Atkinson, Wis.

Nashville-based SouthComm was formed in late 2007 and operates a portfolio of print and online properties, as well as a number of local and regional events.

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