Is the Printing Industry Old School or New-Tech Cool? – August 2013 M&A Activity
Old school buys new school. In an interesting twist, printing companies continue to buy leading edge technology companies that may have at first been perceived as threats, but have evolved into...
View ArticleWhen is a Book Not a Book? – September 2013 M&A Activity
What is it about paper that adds perceived value to our intellectual and artistic pursuits? The appeal of paper as a medium for communication endures and often adds to the meaning of the words and...
View ArticleRR Donnelley buys CGX – Strategic Brilliance or Competitors’ Opportunity? –...
The printing industry was abuzz this past month with opinions about why Consolidated Graphics, the billion dollar master of the commercial printing rollup, agreed to be acquired by RR Donnelley. The...
View ArticlePrivate Equity Interested in Printing if it’s Packaging – November 2013 M&A...
Private equity interest in packaging printing and manufacturing remains high; while in general there is much less interest in the commercial printing and publishing sectors. This was the overwhelming...
View ArticleIs our Forecast for the Printing & Related Industries on Target? – December...
Do the transactions in the printing and related industries during the past year provide a view into what we can expect in 2014? We went back through our deal logs from 2013, analyzed the transactions...
View ArticleWill Facebook's "Paper" Replace the Morning Newspaper? – January 2014 M&A...
Printers and publishers can’t seem to get a break, or at least not the respect that is deserved by industries that have for centuries been the core transmitters of knowledge and political freedom. (I...
View ArticleLeading-Edge Printers Acquire Content Management Companies – February 2014...
Innovative printers, large and small, continue to invest in software companies that manage, create, repurpose, format and deliver informational content. These innovative companies are not choosing...
View ArticlePackaging Sector Comes Alive as Coffin Maker Acquires Global Branding Company...
Significant transactions were announced throughout the spectrum of packaging technologies in March, from the basics - paper making for packaging products, to the sophisticated - global management of...
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A Tale of Two Cities, the Best of Multiples, the Worst of Multiples – April...
It was a Tale of Two Cities for sellers of printing companies in April. For some, it’s the best of times; they appear to have chosen wisely, believed in the power of the internet to transform the...
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It’s Academic – Scholarly Journals are Big Business – May 2014 M&A Activity
Digital content platforms attracted financial and strategic buyers last month, as increasingly sophisticated online systems drive information to centralized providers that automate the design, hosting...
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It’s about Time – June 2014 M&A Activity
The newest old company, Time Inc., was very busy in June. The venerable publisher of magazines, including household names such as Time, Fortune, People, and Sports Illustrated, was spun off from Time...
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Forbes Lands the Whale – July 2014 M&A Activity
Forbes landed the big fish, achieving an estimated $475 million sale price, after much skepticism that the company could find a buyer that was willing to ante up the $400 million that the company was...
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Industry Swims Upstream – August 2014 M&A Activity
Mailing and fulfillment service companies are aggressively moving upstream into printing, graphic design and data management services. Streamworks, in Arden Hills, Minnesota, jumped up the value ladder...
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The Roll-Up Returns (to Commercial Printing) – September 2014 M&A Activity
It’s been a long downhill slide for roll-up activity in the commercial printing industry. The major players have either exited the field (Consolidated Graphics), partially disintegrated (Nationwide...
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Why are These Millennial-Generation Printers Smiling? – October 2014 M&A...
Marketing TechnologyVistaprint recently came calling on Printi, a two-year-old Brazilian startup. The company was founded by a pair of young (and now apparently very happy) entrepreneurs who met while...
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Mark Cuban and Print Shop Owners Score with Shark Tank Investment – November...
Digital Printing – Photobooks / Mobile AppsLess than a year after swimming with the sharks on the popular TV show Shark Tank in January 2014, husband-and-wife team and printing company owners, Julie...
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Target Report 2015 Forecast - The Evolution of Printing & Packaging
The Darwinian process of growth, change, merger, and failure proceeded with full vigor during 2014. The 241 transactions announced during 2014 in the printing, packaging, and related industries in the...
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The End of the Line for MeadWestvaco – January 2015 M&A Activity
Paper and packaging industry giant MeadWestvaco appears to be at the end of its life as an independent entity. The company agreed to a merger with RockTenn to form a yet-to-be-named successor company....
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Who Says Books Aren’t Pretty? – February 2015 M&A Activity
Books were ascendant in the printing deal space as RR Donnelley swooped down and snatched Courier Corporation right out of the arms of Courier’s suitor of choice, Quad/Graphics. Almost two and half...
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Vistaprint Hits a Double with Global Acquisition Strategy – March 2015 M&A...
Cimpress, parent company of the phenomenal Vistaprint, continued to expand its market into additional countries by acquiring web-to-print companies that serve those countries in their native language....
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