Letter to the editor.

Regarding the sale of Kennedy Information

As the M&A broker that represented the Cooper brothers in the sale of Kennedy Information to BNA [NL/NL 11/15/00], I want to take issue with your description of the purchase price paid as "staggering."

Given the company's phenomenal revenue growth rate of more than 50 percent per year for the past four years and the much higher annual growth rate of earnings over the same period, and add the Coopers' extraordinary ability to build dominant brands in vertical markets across multiple media (newsletters, magazines, directories, conferences, databases, internet), the price BNA paid, which wasn't even the highest overall offer for the company, will seem like a bargain a few years from now.

There aren't that many companies out there with dynamic, entrepreneurial leadership and growth potential that Kennedy has, and it's our feeling that BNA made a very astute decision in buying the company.

Bill Hitzig, COO, The Jordan, Edmiston Group Inc. 150 E. 52nd St., 8th Fl., New York, NY 10022, 212-754-0710, fax [phone], [e-mail].

* We replied to Mr. Hitzig that we highly respect Wayne and Marshall Cooper and that our description of the $47.7 million purchase price as "staggering" (considering the company was sold to the Coopers and others only five years ago for $2 million) was not meant to imply an exaggerated amount but an impressive one.