2008 News Releases

United Business Media acquires Think Service, Inc. for $24.5m

23 January 2008

CMP Technology expands its global professional IT support exhibition, training and consultancy business into the call centre management market

United Business Media plc today announces that it has acquired Think Service, Inc. on behalf of CMP Technology. UBM has acquired the business from its founder-owners for an initial cash consideration of $24.5m, with a further performance-related consideration of up to $5m, payable over the next twelve months.

Think Service is headquartered in Colorado Springs, CO and employs 38 full-time staff. Revenues for FY2007 were approximately $15m. The acquisition is anticipated to meet UBM's 8% post-tax cost of capital acquisition criterion in 2008.

Think Service, Inc. (TSI) (www.thinkhdi.com) is a membership, certification and training, and events organization focusing on IT service and support practitioners and is the U.S. market leader in the provision of training and information to service desk employees, also known as help desk employees. TSI operates the oldest and largest association for IT support personnel in the world, serving approximately 7,000 members. TSI also organises an annual Conference & Expo that attracts over 2,000 attendees and is recognized as the industry’s leading event for IT support professionals.

Think Service, Inc. is a highly complementary addition to CMP Technology’s existing International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) business which focuses on call centre consulting, membership, certification & training and events (see www.incoming.com for more information). ICMI was acquired in 2005 to complement CMP’s existing leading position in call centre events and marketing services. ICMI is growing rapidly, having achieved 30% revenue growth in 2006. UBM has continued to build its customer management and call centre business worldwide, with interests now extending across the USA, UK, Europe, Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippines, Thailand and Japan. UBM’s call centre management business is expected to generate revenues of approximately $30m in 2008.

The call centre and help desk markets share fundamental management issues such as capacity management, agent training, employee retention, call handling skills, first call resolution rates. Furthermore, as technology becomes an even more integral and strategic aspect of almost all business transactions, developing and maintaining an employee group to support the use of technology has increased in both scale and in significance.

David Levin, Chief Executive Officer of United Business Media, said:

"Think Service Inc. is a business with strong revenue and profit growth potential, both in the USA and worldwide and is a great fit with CMP Technology’s existing ICMI business. The acquisition of TSI is another step in the continuing development of CMP’s global exhibition, training and consulting business serving the worldwide professional IT support market, an attractive and growing market."

"The acquisition of TSI demonstrates UBM’s continuing focus on developing and growing our businesses in markets which offer profitable growth opportunities. This process is successfully enriching UBM’s overall business mix and progressively improving both the quality and predictability of our earnings."

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Notes to Editors

1. About United Business Media Plc
United Business Media Plc is a leading global business media company. We inform markets and bring the world’s buyers and sellers together at events, online, in print, and with the information they need to do business successfully. We focus on serving professional commercial communities, from doctors to game developers, from journalists to jewellery traders, from farmers to pharmacists around the world. Our 5,000 staff in more than 30 countries are organised into specialist teams that serve these communities, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently.

For more information, go to www.unitedbusinessmedia.com.

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