Canadian Firm Buys SJC Company for $950 mil

A division of a publicly traded company based in San Juan Capistrano, trade-show producer Nielsen Expositions, just got bought out by another company for $950 million in cash.

Onex Corp.. of Toronto, Canada has inked the deal.

It’s not often a locally based company gets mentioned in Bloomberg and other business media outlets. So when the producer of business-to-business trade shows and conferences, we noticed.

According to Bloomberg, Onex is our neighbor to the north’s biggest buyout firm. Meanwhile, Nielsen’s parent company, Nielsen Holdings NV, is based in New York. You might recognize the name as one who gathers TV ratings.

Nielsen Expositions, the local concern, employs 240 people, had revenue of $183 million last year and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $97 million, according to Bloomberg.

“This is an exciting development in the history of the Nielsen Expositions business,” said David Loechner, president of Nielsen Expositions in a statement. “Onex’ experience and successful track record in executing similar corporate carve-outs and building those divisions into industry-leading businesses position it as a strong partner.”