California Dreaming: The Sequel
We were originally planning to head to Blackhawk this week, but two very exciting transactions that we will announce shortly will keep us in New York City for the next two weeks. While we await the time when we can make these announcements, I thought I’d share some excellent diversions to tide everyone over as summer gets under way. (More)

Editorial Quality in a Google Aggregated World
Each of us in the media industry continues to review our models for content creation, particularly during this advertising recession. We often look toward the Google (GOOG) model of aggregated content from sources around the globe with envy and realize that they identified a model, with paid search, that allows them to monetize their significant audience with great efficiency. We also realize that their cost of content creation is not a significant expense line in their model. (More)

DeLeveraging into Summer
At the start of this long Memorial Day weekend, it is clear that with spring we saw some “green shoots” and sensed that we had most likely touched bottom in this deep recession in February or March. Confidence has slowly returned with regards to our financial system and the strongest banks are in the midst of negotiating with Treasury Secretary Geithner on when they can repay the TARP funds. (More)

Stress Test = Confidence
At this point it not clear to me whether Secretary Geithner or Larry Summers or someone else within the Obama administration came up the idea of a stress test for 19 large banks around the country to determine if the banks' balance sheets were strong enough to weather a continuing and deepening recession, but I am willing to give credit to the Obama team for finally demonstrating to everyone that the worst is behind us. (More)

Branding vs. Lead Generation
As we emerge from the long winter recession, once more the debate is underway about whether marketers should spend any of their budget on branding or focus entirely on lead generation. I, for one, believe that this is not an either/or decision. (More)

More entries from Case Blog...

ASSET INTERNATIONAL ADDS EXPERIENCED MEDIA INDUSTRY
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER TO MANAGEMENT TEAM
April 14, 2009 - STAMFORD, CT - Today Asset International announced the appointment of Jane L. Aboyoun to the newly created position of Senior Vice President/Chief Technology Officer, reporting to Chief Executive Officer Jim Casella. In this role, Ms. Aboyoun will design and build the technology infrastructure to support the digital products that serve both the company and the customer base of Asset International brands PLANSPONSOR, PLANADVISER, Global Custodian and ai5000. Read the full press release...

Austin Ventures to Acquire Asset International
December 22, 2008
Stamford, CT, & Austin, TX, December 22, 2008 – Austin Ventures “AV”, with $3.9 billion of capital under management, today announced the signing of definitive agreements to acquire Asset International, a global financial information provider that produces industry-leading publications such as PLANSPONSOR, PLANADVISER, and Global Custodian that have served for more than a decade the needs of global pension funds, asset managers, financial advisers, banking service providers, and other financial institutions. The infusion of capital and management expertise will enable Asset International to greatly expand its existing offerings and to launch new and innovative products into the global funds management industry. Read the press release...

Vets size up M&A Market
December 4, 2008
Long-time publishing executives Jim Casella and Tom Kemp say dealmaking has dropped off sharply. The deepening recession has brought dealmaking in the b-to-b media space almost to a standstill. That's the word from Jim Casella and Tom Kemp, veteran b-to-b media executives who launched media M&A companies of their own in the past two years. Read the entire article...

Economy Will Impact Billion-Dollar Deals; Old Media Should Buy New Media
October 28, 2008
“There’s a lot of companies in Silicon Valley that are going to be attractive to old media companies on the East coast. Those are worth going out and looking at and buying,” said Jim Casella, CEO of Case Interactive Media Read the entire article...

Ex-RBI CEO To Reed: Cut Asking Price, Break It Up
October 28, 2008
Reed Elsevier (NYSE: RUK) is unlikely to sell its Reed Business Information (RBI) as a whole entity and must cut its asking price, the former US CEO of the UK-based B2B publishing unit has warned. Jim Casella, who spent four years at RBI until 2005, told our Future Of Business Media conference in New York City: ”The price expectation has to come down, it’s going to have to be adjusted. Read the entire article...