Penton Acquires Nine Lives Media
Web Business Provides Position in Leading Online Communities for the IT Channel
New York – August 30, 2011
Sharon Rowlands, CEO of Penton Media, announced today that the company has acquired Nine Lives Media and its leading online destinations: MSPmentor, Talkin’ Cloud and The VAR Guy. Nine Lives will become a business unit of Penton’s IT Group. Terms were not disclosed.
“While Penton’s IT Group is largely focused on providing content to IT professionals and developers, Nine Lives focuses on the IT channel, a strategic audience that’s shaping rapidly growing markets like IT services, managed services and cloud computing,” said Ms. Rowlands.
Nine Lives Media was founded in 2008 by CEO Amy Katz, and Executive VP/Editorial Director Joe Panettieri. Katz and Panettieri join Penton, effective immediately. The unit will report to Peg Miller, Penton’s IT Group Market Leader.
“Nine Lives is the perfect complement to our leading IT and developer brands including Windows IT Pro, SQL Server Magazine, SharePoint Pro, and DevPro,” said Miller. “This allows us to fully support the entire technology ecosystem of IT professionals and developers, channel providers, and independent software vendors and hardware vendors. Additionally, the IT channel has already quickly adopted our newly launched Penton Marketing Services, so we already understand this market enough to help them run their businesses more effectively.”
“We are thrilled to combine our growing audiences and growing brands with Penton Media,” said Katz. “We thank our sponsors and readers for their loyalty and community engagement. Together with Penton’s IT Group, we see clear opportunities to drive additional growth across our respective audiences and businesses.”
Through blogs, research, Internet video and sponsored events, Nine Lives’ sponsors engage with a unique community of value added resellers, managed service providers and cloud services providers.
Each Nine Lives brand serves a strategic, influential technology market:
- MSPmentor (www.mspmentor.net) is the #1 media platform covering managed services. The U.S. managed services market will increase from $29 billion in 2010 to $47 billion in 2015, predicts Insight Research Group.
- Talkin’ Cloud (www.talkincloud.com) is the first video‐enhanced blog in the IT Channel, reporting on the rapidly growing cloud industry. Global cloud computing services revenue will reach $148.8 billion in 2014, up from about
$58.6 billion in 2009, estimates Gartner.
- The VAR Guy (www.thevarguy.com) is the #1 channel blog in the value‐added reseller and IT service provider market. Revenues for U.S. consumer and SMB technology support services will grow nearly threefold, reaching $30 billion by 2015, predicts Parks Associates.
Foundation Partners, LLC (www.foundation‐partners.com) acted as an advisor to Nine Lives Media Inc. in connection with this transaction.
About Penton Media
As a leading, independent, business‐to‐business media company, Penton knows business and how to create and disseminate vital content that moves markets. Penton is where professionals turn to gain the critical insight, expert analysis and relevant connections needed to compete and succeed. Headquartered in New York City, the privately held company is owned by MidOcean Partners and U.S. Equity Partners II, an investment fund sponsored by Wasserstein & Co., LP, and its co‐investors. For additional information on the company and its businesses, visit www.penton.com.
Contacts:
Jill Baldassano
Phone: (212) 204‐4259
Email: jill.baldassano@penton.com