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Friday, March 12, 2004 Dow Jones to Acquire Alternative Investor Group Dow Jones & Company has signed an agreement to acquire the stock and assets comprising the Alternative Investor Group of Wicks Business Information, LLC for a cash purchase price of $85 million. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2004. Alternative Investor is a provider of databases, newsletters and industry conferences for the venture-capital market and newsletters and events for the private-equity market. Alternative Investor has major offices in Wellesley, Mass., and San Francisco, with news bureaus and sales offices in New York and London. Alternative Investor will be integrated within the Dow Jones Newsletters division, which also includes the recently acquired Technologic Partners business that also serves the venture-capital and private-equity markets with its VentureWire newswire and conferences. This newly formed operating unit providing newsletters, databases and conferences will be operated within the Dow Jones Newswires division, which in turn is part of the Dow Jones Electronic Publishing segment. Richard A. Shaffer, founder of Technologic Partners, will be editor and publisher of this unit, reporting to Paul Ingrassia, president of Dow Jones Newswires. "For more than a century, Dow Jones has been the leader in coverage of public companies and public markets. Now we will also be the leader in news and information on private companies and private markets," said L. Gordon Crovitz, senior vice president of Dow Jones & Company and president, Electronic Publishing. "We are very pleased to make this acquisition and add this coverage at a time when venture-capital and private-equity firms are once again increasing their key role in global capital markets." Alternative Investor produces five databases. These include Venture Source, which since 1987 has covered venture-capital deals, companies and people. This database, based in San Francisco, is built on proprietary information about which funds are investing in which companies and at what valuations. Alternative Investor publishes four newsletters and other publications, including Private Equity Analyst, which since 1988 has provided news and information covering the private-equity market and its investment specialities, including venture capital, leveraged buyouts, mezzanine investing and turnarounds. Private Equity Analyst, based in Wellesley, Mass., also conducts the Private Equity Analyst range of eight annual conferences. Venture Source, Private Equity Analyst and the other Alternative Investor products will draw on content from all Dow Jones publications and its network of more than 1,500 news staff around the world. Likewise, content from the Alternative Investor products will be made available to other Dow Jones publications and services. Related Links: · Alternative Investor · Dow Jones · The Wicks Group of Companies Click here to return to the homepage of The Write NewsTM Click here to subscribe to our free weekly email newsletter. www.writenews.com Copyright © 1997-2011 by Writers Write, Inc. All Rights Reserved.