Cahners to Acquire CMD Group for $299.5 Million; With Acquisition, Cahners Builds Strength in Construction e-Commerce and Information.

Business/Technology Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 27, 2000

In a move aimed at accelerating its leadership in the commercial construction sector and building the definitive Internet portal for the sector, Cahners Business Information has signed a definitive purchase agreement to acquire CMD Group (formerly known as Construction Market Data Group) for $299.5 million.

The acquisition -- Cahners' tenth in less than a year -- will make Cahners, already a major business-to-business information provider, the premier worldwide supplier of construction information. Through its existing Building & Construction Group, Cahners is a key U.S. publisher of construction magazines, magazine-related Web sites and construction industry portals, Buildingteam.com and HousingZone.com.

"The combination of CMD Group and the Cahners Building & Construction Group properties will give Cahners the critical content, business team and relationships to serve the industry in e-commerce and information services," said Cahners CEO Marc Teren. "The potential for the growth of construction information services, both in print and online, is exciting. We will aggressively move to put CMD Group's print-based construction information online as a critical component of our companywide Internet plans."

CMD Group reported revenues of $126 million in 1999. Construction is an $850 billion market in the U.S., or 8 percent of the gross domestic product.

CMD Group CEO and President Arol Wolford said, "CMD Group is excited to be integrating our quality project, product, cost estimating and editorial content with Cahners' growing online services to deliver to the construction industry `must click' information that will help them make better business decisions." Wolford will become executive vice president of Cahners' new Construction Information Division, reporting to Cahners President and Chief Operating Officer Brian Nairn, who directed the acquisition.

CMD Group in the United States consists of:

--Construction Market Data (CMD): The company's flagship product line with more than 100 regional editions and national construction project information, sales leads and more than 70 local plan room/libraries in major business centers. CMD also publishes ProFile, a directory of more than 20,000 architectural firms in the U.S., in print and on the Internet.

--Architect's First Source (AFS): Publishes First Source for Products, CSI's SPEC-DATA(R) and CSI's MANU-SPEC(R) as print and online building product directories for the selection of nationally available building products.

--R.S. Means: Construction-cost data, training and consulting services in print, CD-ROM and online.

--Associated Construction Publications (ACP): Fourteen regional magazines covering the U.S. highway and heavy construction industry, and three regional heavy equipment trader magazines.

--Manufacturers' Survey Associates (MSA): Quantity surveys, plans and specifications. Quantity surveys are equivalent to a bill of materials for a construction project.

In Canada, Mexico, Scandinavia and Australia, CMD Group provides information and services covering commercial construction project, product, cost data, and related publications.

CMD Group and Cahners are already working together to produce Buildingteam.com, an Internet portal site for the building and construction industry. Buildingteam.com is part of the Cahners Building & Construction Group, which includes the following magazines: Professional Builder, Contractor, Building Design & Construction, Consulting-Specifying Engineer, Construction Equipment, Security, Security Distributing & Marketing, Professional Remodeler, Plants Sites & Parks and Supply House Times. Recently launched HousingZone.com, a portal site for the residential construction industry, is also part of the group.

Management-owned CMD Group (www.cmdg.com), founded in 1975, is headquartered in Atlanta and has 1,400 employees worldwide. It provides quality project, product and cost data to the construction industry in North America, Scandinavia and Australia.

Cahners has made nine other acquisitions in the past year and has launched three major Web sites and two magazines. Its recent acquisitions include LA411, MarketCast, MicroDesign Resources, Publisher's Video Group, the Ashley Group, an equity stake in PartMiner, and the following magazines: rpm, Plants Sites & Parks and Casual Living.

Cahners Business Information (www.cahners.com), a member of the Reed Elsevier plc group (NYSE:RUK and ENL), is the leading U.S. provider of business information to 16 vertical markets, including building & construction, entertainment, manufacturing and retail. Cahners' rich content portfolio encompasses 140 Web sites as well as Variety, Publishers Weekly, Design News and 127 other market-leading business-to-business magazines. Cahners developed the leading business-to-business Web portals e-inSITE in the electronics industry, Manufacturing.net in manufacturing as well as Buildingteam.com and HousingZone.com in construction, and maintains an active program of Internet and print launches.