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Transactions

August 2008
Dayton, Ohio
has sold
to
Portland, Oregon


Background

LexisNexis Group, a subsidiary of Reed Elesevier (LSE:REL), is a leading provider of legal, tax, regulatory, risk, and other business information solutions to professional, corporate, and government customers.

Mealey’s Conferences , which was owned by Lexis Nexis, produces professional education and development seminars on litigation and related topics for attorneys and insurance industry executives. It also produces webinars and teleconferences, publishes proceedings of its events, and delivers on-demand, in-house custom training.

Seven years after LexisNexis bought the company, LexisNexis sharpened its corporate-wide strategic focus on electronic information services, and decided to divest Mealey’s Conferences. They asked Marlin & Associates (M&A) to handle a sale process.



Overview

LexisNexis had come to respect M&A, as they evaluated and bid on several clients that were being advised by M&A. They noted the M&A “process” as well as the values that M&A often obtained for its sell-side clients. Also, M&A had recently represented a client in executing a significant strategic relationship with LexisNexis, advancing its electronic information services strategy. M&A’s domain strength and transaction experience in the legal and business-to-business information sector was an added attraction.

An M&A team started the assignment by working with management to get a detailed understanding of Mealey’s Conferences’ strengths and weaknesses and the long and short term goals of Management. Once these basics were well understood, M&A positioned the Company as a strategic property with significant future upside. M&A then approached potential acquirers in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia.

Several firms made credible offers. M&A worked with LexisNexis to improve price, narrow the field, and manage the due diligence process.

Ultimately, M&A was pleased to play a role as LexisNexis sold Mealey’s Conferences to Business Valuation Resources. The transaction allowed BVR to expand its services and client base; it provided the managers and employees of Mealey’s Conference with a new home and a promising future; and it allowed LexisNexis to focus on its core competencies, without the distraction of managing a business that no longer fit.

M&A Role

Marlin & Associates New York LLC managed the process, assisted in the negotiations, and acted as the exclusive strategic and financial advisor to LexisNexis.

Press

Mealey's conferences sold to Bus. Valuation Resources

July 01, 2008

In related news, BVR Legal, a division of Business Valuation

Resources, Inc. (Portland, OR), has acquired Mealey's Conferences, a division of Mealey Publications (Berwyn, PA), from parent LexisNexis (New York). No terms of the deal were given. LexisNexis is a unit of Reed Elsevier.

Mealey s Conferences offers remote and live events that cover a wide range of legal fields and areas, including insurance and tort law. Live events in the fourth quarter of 2008 include conferences on: rain-making, negotiating and collaborative development; asbestos litigation; litigation and trial strategies; reinsurance; derivatives litigation; construction defect claims; and, bad faith litigation.

Teleconferences and webinars

for the same period cover topics such as: courtroom practices, consumer product safety, IP and domain names, shareholder suits, stock ownership plans, commercial litigation, lead paint, class action against hospitals, presenting quantitative evidence and benzene.

BVR offers Pratt's Stats, the "Business Valuation Update" newsletter, information on private and public company acquisitions, banking and venture deals, and books, custom reports and guides focusing on business valuation and related topics. BVR Legal is a CLE provider with expertise in business valuation in the context of divorce, tax, bankruptcy, lost profits, shareholder disputes, intellectual property, stock options and general business disputes.

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