Veronis Suhler Stevenson

Infobox_Company
company_name = Veronis Suhler Stevenson
company_type = Private Ownership
company_
foundation = 1981
location =
industry = Private Equity
products = private equity funds
key_people = John J. Veronis and John S. Suhler
assets = $2.8 billion
homepage = [http://www.vss.com/index.asp www.vss.com]

Veronis Suhler Stevenson, or VSS is a private equity firm whose investments are exclusively concentrated in the Media industry and related sectors. Founded in 1981, VSS manages a number of private equity funds for strategic buyouts and structured growth or mezzanine capital investments, in mid-range companies operating in the media, telecommunications and educational sectors of North America and Europe. [cite web|title=About VSS|url=http://www.vss.com/about_vss/index.asp |work=VSS corporate website|accessdate=2008-08-19]

VSS has headquarters based in New York, and has offices in London where it operates as Veronis Suhler Stevenson International Ltd. [cite web|title=Contacts|url=http://www.vss.com/contacts/index.asp |work=VSS corporate website|accessdate=2008-08-19]

Corporate history

The company was founded as Veronis, Suhler & Associates (VS&A) in 1981, by John J. Veronis and John S. Suhler. [World Advertising Research Center (n.d.)] Veronis had been co-founder of "Psychology Today" magazine and its associated enterprises, and Suhler was a former president of CBS Publishing Group. [Fabrikant (1988)] Jeffrey T. Stevenson joined the company the following year, and became a named partner in 2001. There are five partners altogether in the senior management structure, and the company employs more than 50 staff across its two offices. [cite web|title=Team|url=http://www.vss.com/team/index.asp |work=VSS corporate website|accessdate=2008-08-19]

Investment and buyout activities

as of|2008 VSS's portfolio of equity and capital funds have been invested in more than 50 companies, resulting in over 200 mergers, add-ons and acquisitions transactions. Current and former platform company investments for VSS include Infobase Publishers, Kansas Broadcasting System, ITE Group, Granada Learning, CSC Media Group, and Yellow Book USA. VSS management of equity and mezzanine investment funds commenced from 1987, [World Advertising Research Center (n.d.)] and in that year completed some 25 media company deals at a value totalling over nowrap|$1 billion. [Fabrikant (1988)] By 2006 VSS investment funds managed commitments over nowrap|$2.8 billion. [World Advertising Research Center (n.d.)]

In 2005, VSS partnered with Mecom Group—an investment company headed by former Mirror Group chief executive David Montgomery—to acquire Berliner Verlag, the publisher of German daily newspapers "Berliner Zeitung" and "Berliner Kurier", among other titles. This acquisition, of a company valued at £53m from the former owners Holtzbrinck, represented the first foreign takeover of a German daily newspaper. [Brook (2005)]

Media industry publications

In addition to its investment and recapitalization portfolios, VSS also conducts and publishes research data on financing & statistics, forecasts and industry trends for the media, publishing and communications sector. It produces two widely consulted American media industry periodicals, "Communications Industry Forecast" (ISSN|1546-0797) and "Communications Industry Report" (ISSN|1552-7034). [Greco (2005, pp.98–100,278)]

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External links

* [http://www.vss.com/index.asp Veronis Suhler Stevenson] corporate website
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