UBM has sold its press release distributor PR Newswire to Cision for $841m (£551m).
UBM, which is looking to focus on its events operation, said it proposes to return £245m to shareholders following the deal.
Cision, which is controlled by US private equity group GTCR, acquired media monitoring group Gorkana from private equity group Exponent for £200m last year.
“Bringing Cision and PR Newswire together will enable communicators to turn data into actionable insights, the necessary link between communications and business outcomes,” said Peter Granat, chief executive of Cision.
UBM said the net cash proceeds of £253m it retains after paying the special dividend to investors will provide “greater financial capacity … [to make] bolt-on acquisitons”.
“Today’s announcement represents a significant step in the execution of UBM’s ‘Events First’ strategy, the objective of which is to become the world’s leading focused B2B events business,” said Tim Cobbold, chief executive of UBM.
