M&A Deal Summary

EagleTree Capital Acquires Northstar Travel Group

On June 8, 2016, private equity firm EagleTree Capital acquired information services company Northstar Travel Group from Wicks Group

Acquisition Highlights
  • This is EagleTree Capital’s 2nd transaction in the Information Services sector.
  • This is EagleTree Capital’s 27th transaction in the United States.
  • This is EagleTree Capital’s 2nd transaction in New Jersey.
Investment Fate
  • Northstar Travel Group was sold to a strategic buyer in 2025.

M&A Deal Summary

Date 2016-06-08
Target Northstar Travel Group
Sector Information Services
Buyer(s) EagleTree Capital
Sellers(s) Wicks Group
Deal Type Secondary Buyout
Advisor(s) Harris Williams (Financial)
Morgan Lewis
Jones Day (Legal)

Target

Northstar Travel Group

Rutherford, New Jersey, United States
Northstar Travel Group is a provider of business-to-business information, content, events, data, research, custom content, and software dedicated to the global travel and meetings industries. Northstar is the owner of well-known brands and products, including Travel Weekly, TravelAge West, Business Travel News, Successful Meetings, Meetings & Conventions, Travel Weekly China, Incentive, M&C China, Phocuswright, and Inntopia. Northstar Travel Group was founded in 1989 and is based in Rutherford, New Jersey.

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Buyer(S) 1

Buyer

EagleTree Capital

Investor Investor Investor Investor Investor


Category Private Equity Firm
Founded 2001
PE ASSETS 4.8B USD
Size Large
Type Sector Agnostic
DESCRIPTION

EagleTree Capital is an independent private equity and investment firm focused on mid-market leveraged buyouts. The Firm's buyout group looks to invest $50 to $200 million to support acquisitions of profitable companies in the media/communications, consumer products, and water/industrial products and services sectors. EagleTree Capital was formerly known as Wasserstein Partners, an investment firm formed by Bruce Wasserstein, the late CEO of investment bank Lazard Freres. EagleTree Capital is based in New York City.


DEAL STATS #
Overall 29 of 47
Sector: Information Services M&A 2 of 2
Type: Secondary Buyout M&A Deals 7 of 14
State: New Jersey M&A 2 of 3
Country: United States M&A 27 of 45
Year: 2016 M&A 2 of 2
PREVIOUS DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2016-05-06 Moss

Franklin Park, Illinois, United States

Moss provides three-dimensional marketing solutions to customers across retail, exhibits, events, sports, and commercial markets. The company’s products include tension fabric structures, specialty signage such as radiance lightboxes and non-fabric displays, and large-format imaging for wall coverings and portable displays. Moss was founded in 1975 and is based in Franklin Parke, Illinois.

Buy -
FOLLOWING DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2016-09-15 Penton Media

New York, New York, United States

Penton Media, Inc. is an information services and marketing company. Penton’s products inform with rich industry insights and workflow tools; engage through dynamic events, education and networking; and advance business with powerful marketing services programs.

Sell $1.6B

Seller(S) 1

SELLER

Wicks Group

New York, New York, United States

Investor Investor Investor Investor Investor


Category Private Equity Firm
Founded 1989
PE ASSETS 1.2B USD
Size Large
Type Sector Agnostic
DESCRIPTION

The Wicks Group is a private equity firm focused on selected segments of the communications, information and media industries. Wicks targets privately held or non-core divisions of large corporations with high-margins, limited competitive environment, and strong cash flow potential. Specific areas of interest include special interest publishing (trade magazines, workplace training, reference publishing, consumer magazines), business information services, (market information, specialized databases, consumer research), television broadcasting, radio broadcasting, newspapers, cable television, and outdoor advertising. The Wicks Group was formed in 1989 and is based in New York City.


DEAL STATS #
Overall 16 of 26
Sector: Information Services M&A 1 of 2
Type: Secondary Buyout M&A Deals 6 of 10
State: New Jersey M&A 1 of 2
Country: United States M&A 16 of 26
Year: 2016 M&A 1 of 1
PREVIOUS DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2016-05-05 Bisnow

New York City, New York, United States

Bisnow is a commercial real estate news and events company. The company maintains over 600K e-newsletter subscribers, hosts over 400K unique visitors to its website per month, and produces almost 300 events with more than 60K ticket buyers per year across 30 metro markets. Bisnow was founded in 2005 and is based in New York City.

Buy -
FOLLOWING DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2017-01-09 Invo Healthcare

Tampa, Pennsylvania, United States

Invo HealthCare is a provider of outsourced clinical services for special needs children in 23 states. It operates through two divisions that serve the needs of preschool children (3-5) and school age children (K-12). In addition Invo’s early intervention division provides service delivery to children from birth to 3 years. Invo Healthcare was founded in 1993 and is based in Tampa, Pennsylvania.

Buy -