NEW YORK, July 9, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Summit Business Media, LLC, a leading business-to-business media and information company serving the insurance, financial and professional services markets, today announced the closing of its acquisition of Wicks Business Information, a publishing and professional education company serving financial services, accounting and legal professionals in North America.
As a result of the acquisition, Summit Business Media now publishes Investment Advisor, Credit Union Times, InsideCounsel and Treasury & Risk magazines, as well as websites, custom publishing projects and an array of live events. Its Executive Enterprises seminar unit also produces more than 100 courses each year, serving the specialized continuing education and training needs of accountants, lawyers and tax professionals.
"We welcome our new employees to the Summit Business Media family," said William F. Reilly, Chairman and CEO. "They will be an important part of our company as we move to implement our growth strategy in business-to-business media."
The acquired operations will join Summit's Highline Media unit, led by Andrew L. Goodenough, President of Highline. John Whelan, the Vice President and Group Publisher of WBI, will report to Thomas A. Fowler, Executive Vice President of Highline's Magazine Division, while the EEI and events businesses will report to James M. Keefe, Senior Vice President of Highline's Conference Division. Douglas J. Manoni, WBI's CEO, will be leaving the company after a transition period.
The law firm of Reed Smith Sachnoff & Weaver assisted Summit in the transaction.
About Summit Business Media
Summit Business Media was formed through a partnership between William F. Reilly, former CEO of PRIMEDIA, and Wind Point Partners in an acquisition of Highline Media and Pfingsten Publishing in November 2006. Summit Business Media serves the insurance community with venerable assets such as Highline's National Underwriter Property/Casualty and Life/Health weeklies and SB Media's Life Insurance Selling and American Agent & Broker. Summit Business Media serves the financial services and insurance industries via magazines like Wealth Manager, Research and Futures magazines, reference tools like TaxFacts and Fire, Casualty and Surety Bulletins, and 150 other books, electronic products and conference events. It is also the leading data provider of financial and market information on insurance companies as well as the premier information source to the retail mortgage market via Mortgage Originator magazine. Additional information about Summit Business Media is available at www.summitbusinessmedia.com. Additional information about Highline Media and SB Media, LLC is available at www.highlinemedia.com and www.sbmediallc.com.