Wicks continues aggressive acquisition strategy.

Wicks Business Information, which entered the newsletter and publishing business nine months ago with its acquisition of Communication Briefings (NL/NL 8/99) and has since become a major player in the industry, is continuing its aggressive acquisition strategy in 2000.

Within the "next 30 to 60 days" WBI expects to announce "an acquisition or a partnership" that will put the company into the conference business as well, according to CEO Douglas J. Manoni. WBI does run some conferences through the properties which it has acquired, but the company will set up a separate division to handle the conference end.

WBI's most recent acquisitions are three newsletters which it purchased from Aspen Publishers, a Wolters-Kluwer Company. The titles, Career Confidential, Professional Selling and Quality Management, were folded into Briefings Publishing Group, the newsletter publishing division which WBI operates out of its offices in Alexandria, Virginia. No terms of the sale were given.

WBI is an affiliate of the Wicks Group of Companies, a New York-based private equity investment firm specializing in communications, information and media businesses that teamed up with the Union Bank of California, which also has an equity in WBI.

The company's purchase of Communication Briefings and three other newsletters for a reported $10 million last July marked the final dismantling of Capitol Publications and its 50+ newsletters and other information services, which had been owned by Pearson Publishing.

Immediately after that purchase WBI brought in a seasoned newsletter veteran, Michelle Cox, as executive vice president to head up its newsletter division. Cox was the former president and publisher of National Institute of Business Management (NIBM) and former vice president of Financial Services Associates, publisher of Louis Rukeyser's Wall Street and Louis Rukeyser's Mutual Funds.

WBI followed up with the purchase of Treasury & Risk Management magazine which goes to more than 50,000 financial executives who specialize in treasury management (NL/NL 9/15/99). It was sold by CFO Publishing a subsidiary of The Economist Group.

After this purchase Maile Hulihan, who had launched Treasury & Risk Management, joined WBI as senior vice president and group publisher of the magazine division. She had previously worked at Business Week and the Wall Street Journal Europe.

Then, in January of this year, WBI completed the purchase of the investment newsletter Realty Stock Review from Dow Jones Financial Publishing Company, along with two magazines, Investment Advisor and Asset Management. The publications were reported to have revenues of $7.5 million, but the terms of the transaction were not announced. Realty Stock Review is a weekly investment newsletter that sells for $349/year.