TechInsights, part of British United Business Media (UBM), created TechInsights Services, Data and Market Intelligence, a separate business unit dedicated to providing technical and market intelligence data services, IP life-cycle consulting services and supporting proprietary software tools to the global electronics industry.  The new business unit has pro forma 2008 revenues of around $35 million.

In addition, TechInsights acquired Sanguine Microelectronics  to expand the capabilities and capacity of this newly established unit that also includes previous UBM acquisitions, Semiconductor Insights and Portelligent.  The purchase was made for an initial cash consideration of $8 million. A further deferred consideration of up to $9.5 million will be payable over the next three years, subject to certain performance conditions. This is UBM's second recent acquisition in China and follows its $6 million acquisition of Xinhua PR Newswire in November this year.  Sanguine employs around 130 people at its headquarters in Shanghai, China and at its subsidiary in Montpellier, France.  Its 2008 revenues are expected to be over $4 million.

A 10-year old Chinese company, Sanguine has emerged as a supplier of technical analysis and technical data services with a footprint in Southeast Asia. Sanguine performs in-depth technical investigation of semiconductors and electronic systems to analyze their design, technological composition, component sourcing, and manufacturing process. The Chinese firm has also built a suite of proprietary reverse engineering software tools under the Matrix and Prisma brands.  The firm's specialty is reverse engineering EDA software and ICs.  The company's founder and general manager is Haiping Yao.  Earlier, he worked as a computer science programmer for several Chinese and Japanese companies.

Harry Page

The new TechInsights unit will be led by Harry Page, senior VP, who will also be responsible to integrate Sanguine into the larger TechInsights organization.  Most recently, Page was the president of Semiconductor Insights. Prior to joining Semiconductor Insights, he held the position of VP of Network Services for Meriton Networks. In this role, he was responsible for the global service and support functions to meet the mission-critical needs of network service providers and the networking operations of large enterprise customers. Prior to that, he was VP and COO for Symagery Microsystems (now part of Psion Teklogix)

UBM Technology with its TechInsights group is part of its diversification strategy to transform part of its operations from being strictly a media play to a leader in the provision of marketing, intelligence services and software tools to the technology industry.

With 350 employees, the group has facilities in Austin, Texas; Montpellier, France; Ottawa, Canada; Shanghai, China and Warsaw, Poland.

UBM Technology (part of the UBM parent company), with 1,100 employees, morphed over the years as it acquired various media organizations during the early 2000s as technology publications underwent consolidation. In 1999, UBM acquired CMP Media, best known for its flagship trade publication, EE Times. At the end of February 2008, CMP Media became United Business Media LLC (UBM Technology) and four new divisions--Everything Channel, TechInsights, TechWeb and Think Services--were formed to focus tightly on their respective technology audiences and communities.

The members of the new TechInsights leadership team (announced in early December) and their respective areas of responsibility are outlined below:

• David Blaza, VP, Events - Embedded
• Randall Freeborn, Chief Human Resources Officer
• Jenn Markey, Chief Marketing Officer - Online and Performance Marketing
• Harry Page, Senior VP Professional Services - Semiconductor Insights, Portelligent
• Paul Way, Senior VP Media - Content and Community Development
• Paul Miller, CEO TechInsights and acting in a Sales leadership capacity for EE Times and TechOnline on an interim basis

UBM, the parent company, is headquartered in London England and has revenues in the 800 million British pounds range.   The media conglomerate employs over 5,000 people in 60 countries around the world.   UBM has business forays into two main segments:

1. News distribution
2. Media products (events, online, print, business information)

UBM's operating business groups are:

• PR Newswire
• CMP Asia
• CMP Information
• UBM Technology (Everything Channel, TechWeb, TechInsights, Think Services)
• CMPMedica
• Commonwealth Business Media

David Levin

The organization brought in a new head, David Levin, in April 2005.  He was previously CEO of Symbian, a mobile phone software licensing company, since April 2002. He joined Symbian from Psion PLC, the handheld computing company, where he was CEO from February 1999. Prior to that, he spent five years with the international business-publishing group Euromoney Institutional Investor, as COO and before that as president of Institutional Investor in New York. Earlier, he worked with the venture capital group Apax Partners, and with the consultancy firm Bain and Company for five years, mostly in Asia.

Levin reorganized the corporation by breaking it up -- making it market- and customer-centric.  When he joined, 75% of the revenue came from magazines. This burdened the media giant by having to conform to economies of scale demanded by print publications.  After spending $225 million in 17 other properties, the magazine revenues now only comprise about 25% of the total.  The rest comes from events (40%), online (19%) and information services (16%).  His strategy was to let the main business units run autonomously -- helped by eliminating a holding company layer of management.

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