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Back in 1996, Vitale had the "itch" big-time, when the then- Cahners vp/gm teamed with Jim Dunning, Claeys Bahrenburg, and Willis Stein & Partners to purchase Petersen Publishing for an "overpriced" $450 million (min, August 19, 1996). The $1.4 billion paid for Petersen in November 1998 (after the company went publicand spent about $350 million on acquisitions) by Emap PLC proved that they got the last laugh, but by that time, Vitale wasn't around to celebrate. He left the Petersen presidency that summer over differences with now- Ziff-Davis Media chairman/ceo Dunning, and in January 1999, he became president/ceo of Denver-based Aspen Marketing Group, the Advertising Age-described (May 28) fourth largest marketing services agency in the U.S.