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AEGIS Communications has acquired the remaining Ascend dental properties: The Compendium of Continuing Education in Dentistry, Contemporary Aesthetics, Contemporary Dental Assisting, and Contemporary Oral Hygiene. The related Web sites and face-to-face properties were also purchased. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Dan Perkins, CEO of AEGIS, is very familiar with the properties that his company has just purchased. He had been president of the healthcare division at Medical World Communications until it was purchased by Ascend in 2005, overseeing (and, in some cases, helping to launch) all of the books AEGIS acquired in the December deal. He and four senior staff members left Med World/Ascend in the wake of new management, and, not bound by non-compete clauses in their severance contracts, started their own dental publications company, starting with Inside Dentistry.
"The assets are the people, and they let the assets walk out the door," says Perkins in reference to Ascend. "I was in a position where I had to make a living, and so we started AEGIS Communications. In the first year, we took 12% of market share. Inside Dentistry is now the third largest book in terms of revenue in the dental market."
Perkins learned that the dental books that he used to run were for sale toward the end of the year and entered into negotiations with Ascend to purchase the properties near the beginning of December. With a December 20 deadline for a deal, Perkins, Mark Brockelman (Ascend's CFO), and their respective teams worked around the clock to get it done.
With its own editorial, publishing, and back office teams,...