San Francisco -- MediaLive International, which produced Comdex, the once-giant but now defunct high-tech trade show, has exited the event business, selling its Technology Media Group to CMP Media for $65 million.
Through Technology Media Group, MediaLive operated some 20 events under more than a dozen brands, including Interop, VoiceCon, Next Generation Networks, Collaborative Technologies Conference, Mobile Business Expo, and Web 2.0.
"Our integration with CMP Media offers technology companies an extremely powerful partner to help them more closely align their marketing initiatives and sales goals," said MediaLive chief executive Robert Priest-Heck.
The sale, earlier this month, encompassed MediaLive's entire event business as well as publications and websites focused on the high-tech industry, according to company spokesman Josh Aroner.
MediaLive continues to operate a software company, Wingate Studios, that serves the event industry, Aroner added.
For CMP Media, a unit of U.K.-based United Business Media, the Technology Media acquisition marks the company's sixth acquisition in five months.
"The combination of the MediaLive assets with CMP's industry-leading publications, significant online investments and vertical market events will offer technology vendors the most comprehensive marketing solutions available in the industry," said CMP chief executive Steve Weitzner.
Held every November in Las Vegas, Comdex was for years one of the largest trade shows in the country, boasting more than 200,000 attendees and nearly 2,500 exhibiting companies.
MediaLive cancelled Comdex in 2004. The show shrank to about 40,000 qualified buyers and about 550 exhibiting companies the year before.