BREAKING NEWS & VIEWS

AEGIS Communications Acquires Ascend Dental Books
Wednesday, January 2, 2008

In mid-November, Cam Bishop, then-CEO of Ascend Media, told minonline that Ascend was exploring the sale of the remainder of its Dental Learning Systems division after jettisoning Dental Products Shopper (sold to Dave Branch, the magazine’s publisher). Today, AEGIS Communications has announced the acquisition of the remaining Ascend dental properties: The Compendium of Continuing Education in Dentistry, Contemporary Aesthetics, Contemporary Dental Assisting, and Contemporary Oral Hygiene. The related Web sites and face-to-face properties were also purchased. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Dan Perkins, CEO of AEGIS, ran the businesses he bought as president of the healthcare division at Medical World Communications until it was purchased by Ascend in 2005. He and four senior staff members left the company in the wake of new management, and, not binded by non-compete clauses in their severance contracts, started their own dental publications company, starting with Inside Dentistry.

“The assets are the people, and they let the assets walk out the door,” says Perkins. “I was in a position where I had to make a living, and so we started AEGIS Communications. In the first year, we took 12% of market share. Inside Dentistry is now the third largest book in terms of revenue in the dental market.”

Perkins found out that the dental books that he used to run were for sale towards the end of the year and entered into negotiations with Ascend to purchase the properties near the beginning of December. With a deadline for a deal of December 20, Perkins, Mark Brockelman (Ascend’s CFO), and their respective teams worked around the clock to get it done.

With its own editorial teams, publishing teams, and back office teams, AEGIS is only keeping one Ascend employee on board for the transition: Dawn LaGrossa, who will continue to coordinate all continuing education content and programs. The rest ("seven or eight" [Perkins]) were let go by Ascend when the deal was signed in December.

“The plan for the publications is to revamp and relaunch them with clearly discernable niches within the dental field,” says Perkins.

More on future plans for the Ascend dental books in the January 7 min’s b2b.
If you have breaking news to share please contact Steve Smith at ssmith@accessintel.com
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