UBM acquires OAG Holdings & Software Conference.

United Business Media (London), through its Commonwealth Business Media unit (CBM; East Windsor, NJ), has acquired OAG Holdings Ltd. (London) for 2.5 million [pounds sterling], or about $4.9 million, in cash.

OAG provides passenger and cargo flight information to global aviation industry. Its airline schedule database holds historical and future flight details for 1000 airlines and more than 3500 airports, and currently tracks around 28 million departures per year. OAG has more than 50,000 customers, including global and regional airlines, airports, global distribution systems, travel agencies, corporate travel planners, government bodies, aircraft manufactures, freight forwarders and the traveling public.

In 2006, almost 50% of OAG's estimated $47 million in revenues were derived from data and electronic products. The remaining revenues were generated principally from print products. CBM said that OAG is "complementary to, and will be integrated into, CBM's BACK Aviation database business. The combined product offering will be the aviation industry's most comprehensive data and intelligence business, providing information across all key areas of the aviation market."

BACK specializes in providing strategic and technical consulting and data information services to the aviation industry. CBM products cover the global trade and transportation market and include PIERS Global Intelligence, "Journal of Commerce," ""Air Cargo World," "Gulf Shipper," five other magazines, 11 directories, eight conferences and related electronic products.

In related news, UBM division CMP Technology (Manhasset, NY) has acquired the Software 2007 conference from Sand Hill Group (Mountain View, CA) for an initial cash consideration of $5.5 million with a further $3.5 million being payable over the next three years if certain performance conditions are met. This year's two-dayconference attracted more than 1500 attendees. CMP said the event is "highly complementary" with its existing show portfolio, including Interop, Web 2.0, Summit, the Enterprise 2.0 Conference and Mobile Business Expo.