Veronis Suhler acquires Xtreme Information

Investee Company – Xtreme Information Ltd

Investee Company Business – Provides business information services

Type of Financing – MBO

Equity Providers – VS&A Communications Partners III

Equity Leader (Individual) – Stephen Warshaw, Christopher Russell

Debt Providers – nk

Debt Type – nk

Debt Leader (Individual) – nk

Equity Amount – nk

Total Deal Value – £35 million to £40 million (estimated)

Other Advisors – Merlin Financial, Ashursts

Comments – London-based Xtreme Information Ltd, a business information services company that monitors advertising, news and advertising expenditures on a global basis, has been acquired by its management team, backed by Veronis Suhler, in a deal estimated to be worth between £35 million and £40 million.

The deal was financed by VS&A Communications Partners III, the $1 billion private equity affiliate of Veronis Suhler, media merchant bank and private equity investor, established in 1981. Xtreme’s intends to expand its media monitoring services globally.

Founded in 1983 as TV Register, Xtreme provides an advertising monitoring service that tracks, digitises, archives, and distributes TV commercials and print advertising around the world.

Its income is partly based on subscriptions from large corporate advertising and marketing departments, partly from advertising agencies. In addition, Xtreme’s editorial division is a high-speed multi-media news clipping service. Xtreme predicts a turnover for 2001 of £20 million.

John Gordon, Xtreme’s co-founder and CEO, will retain his position and a percentage of the company. “Xtreme is the only company with demonstrated capability in worldwide broadcast and print monitoring of advertising content,” he stated. “No other media services organisation delivers a seamless application for monitoring advertising to both corporate marketers and agencies on a global scale.”