David Unleashed

The press release has gotten a lot of attention in the news this year. We started the year with the news that Business Wire was acquired by Berkshire Hathaway. I had the opportunity to sit down and visit with Cathy Baron-Tamraz in July. It was fun to hear her recount the story of the sale. It is not my story to tell, but if you ever have the chance to meet with Cathy, ask her to tell it. It is very interesting.

Next up was Market Wire which sold to CCN Mathews for an estimated USD $30 million, mostly making their investors whole. Marketwire has the distinction of having sold twice in a single year. The company that has been out most of the year with a “retire your old wire service” marketing campaign was purchased by, of all things, a pension fund. Anyone else see a bit of irony in this?

Primezone then sold to Nasdaq, I honestly forget the amount, causing a bit of concern and speculation that Nasdaq may bundle disclosure distribution with their listing fees. Turns out that they have announced plans to increase their listing fees and include limited distribution for their listed companies. Primezone has changed its name to PrimeNewswire.

PRWeb then sold to Vocus, Inc. for USD $28 million in August. This sale was followed by the sale of US Newswire to PR Newswire for about USD $24 million in Q3. PR Newswire is rumored to be for sale but it does not appear that the transaction will be complete before the end of 2006. It has indeed been a busy year for the press release newswire.