Holy crap! EE Times eats EDN!

News came in this morning that UBM is acquiring Canon Communications for $287 million.  That means EDN will become part of the EE Times Group, once the sale is approved by US regulators.

It was just last February that Canon bought EDN, Test and Measurement World, Design News and Packaging Digest off the struggling Reed Business operation, followed by an ill-advised layoff of Robert Cravotta, picking up Rich Nass from Embedded Systems and the defection of Ron Wilson back to EE Times.  At that point I was concerned about the future of EDN and T&M World because it was obvious from discussions within Canon that they really didn't understand what EDN was all about, even though they were a successful and profitable publishing company.

With this acquisition one might assume that EDN is not long for this world as they were an active competitor to EE Times, but a call with Paul Miller, CEO of the EE Times Group, this morning allayed that concern.  Miller sees the value of EDN as complementary to what EE Times is doing going forward and now they don't have to worry about competition for ad dollars -- which is what the rivalry was all about going back to the days of Electronic News.

This acquisition is good news all around for electronics media coverage of the semiconductor industry because it brings the best and brightest under one roof.  It's also good for UBM because it gives them a solid beachhead it the growing medical technology field.  It's not great news for advertising buyers though.  You're not going to be able to play of EDN coverage on EE Times to get a lower rate.

Time to start looking to your media buy budget, folks.

Comments

  1. Dan HoldenSeptember 16, 2010 at 7:27 AM

    Let's hope this brings some much-needed stability to the tech press. They deserve a measure of success. As for the advertisers, I think this actually makes their job a little easier, most companies have difficulty making ad dollars work for them across multiple publications, particularly if they want to show ROI. From what I've seen, the only way companies can take advantage of the additional services that publishing houses offer these days is by picking winners for their dollars. This being budgeting season for most corporations, I'd say UBM made a good move. Now they're going to have lot of door-knocking...

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