Compass Capital Partners

By Harris DeWese Another wave of merger and acquisition activity is mounting in the printing industry. Soon it will sweep across the industry as never before. It began mid-year 2003 and is likely to continue for several years. This new era of consolidation will be of greater magnitude than previous periods. It will have a different impetus and many new characteristics. This surge is enabled by an improving economy, continuing low interest rates, buyers' pent-up demand for external growth, the difficulty associated with organic growth in printing and the catalytic effect of a handful of recent mega-deals. This new period of consolidation will

Valentine's Day just passed. I'm a hopeless romantic and I went a little nuts with gifts for all the women in my life; one wife, three daughters and four granddaughters. Some people have said that I'm a "man's man." But, I'm confessin' that as I grow older, I'm getting more and more in touch with what some experts refer to as my "feminine side." It's got something to do with men's testosterone leaking out or evaporating or something. Whew! I'm glad to get that little tidbit off my chest. I have to be careful with the rest of this so as not to be

In my December 2003 column, I offered to send you readers "400 Sales Tips for Printing Sales Professionals." I concocted this offer at 3 a.m. on the morning of Attila the Editor's stupid deadline whilst I was stoned on a caffeine high. Coffee is about all I have left now that I'm on this stupid South Beach diet and working out with a personal trainer. So far, my 61-year-old biceps are up to 18˝, I'm begging my neighbors to let me redecorate their homes and I can bench press about twice my IQ. The 400 tips idea was a gratuitous, self-serving act. I

Tanagraphics, Seybert Merge NEW YORK CITY—Tanagraphics Inc. and Seybert Nicholas Printing Group have signed a definitive merger agreement to form what they claim to be the largest privately held company providing print management solutions in the Big Apple. The new company will be called TanaSeybert and will offer commercial and digital printing, advertising prepress services, bindery and mailing services. TanaSeybert will also offer a full range of integrated Web- and browser-based services. Harris DeWese, chairman of Compass Capital Partners, served as financial advisor for the transaction. Baldwin, technotrans Deal Nixed SHELTON, CT—Baldwin Technology has notified technotrans AG that it will no longer pursue the transaction announced in

What was I thinking when I offered to send you readers my list of the Top 400 Sales Tips? I didn't think anyone would take me seriously. But hundreds of you e-mailed me to request the list! This forced me to write 400 sales tips. I'm pretty sure I missed Christmas and New Years. I typed until I wore through these silly mittens that they make me wear. I actually thought about announcing my retirement and heading for Key West. My business partner, Gabe Nagy, announced his retirement this past December. That's Gabe Nagy, Esquire of Princeton, Cum Laude 1959 and Harvard Law School 1964.

Thinking is hard for me. It tires my brain and then I have to take a nap. I got to thinking the other day about how important it is to be "normal." I had just finished a phone conversation with a good pal who is president of a $100 million-plus printing company. My buddy is very "normal." I'm talkin' head-screwed-on-straight rational, without any peccadilloes. There's nary an eccentric bone in his body. Conversations with this guy are fun and refreshing because he's "normal" and, of course, I am "normal." All this thinking about being "normal" prompted me to do some high-level, in-depth research and here's what I

Pasquariello Graphics is holding a two-day folding school the week of January 26. The course is designed to help operators overcome problems associated with printing and binding. The PGI Folding School features MBO equipment. Graphic arts distributor Enovation Graphic Systems has named Steve Bennett as the company's new vice president of product marketing and communications. Sun Chemical has named Brad Bergey as COO of Kohl & Madden, its business unit devoted to inks used by sheetfed, forms and combination printers in the commercial market. It is planned that Bergey will succeed George Dunn, the current president of Kohl & Madden, when he retires in April.

Boy am I worried. The editor-in-chief of this magazine and the publisher are taking me to dinner next week. We are going to a very private, out-of-the-way, quiet and exclusive restaurant. I'm scared that it's going to be one of those mob hit dinners where I take a Louisville Slugger to the back of my head just as I'm slurping my first spoonful of hemlock soup. After all, this is Philadelphia, the home of creative mob rubouts. Or, maybe they're gonna strip all the buttons off my jacket and drum me out of their writers' corp. I can see myself limping out of the

I don't understand why one day is a great day and the next day has to be a disaster. This happened to me on September 13th and 14th. It's tough on my psyche to go from euphoria to—boom—the pits in the space of 24 hours. Saturday, the 13th, was perfect. There was a great sale at K-Mart. I now have 24 large cans of Maxwell House French Roast coffee, 108 rolls of Viva paper towels and 108 rolls of Scott toilet tissue. As you know, these are some of my favorite brands. It's not the bargains that thrilled me; it's the stockpiling I'm after. I

I've decided to write another book. This book will have lots of pictures and maybe 16-point type. This way, slow readers, like me, can say they read a book and will have something to talk about at cocktail parties. I have a title. It's a little long, but it covers the book's contents. It's going to be titled, "The Mañana Man's Guide to Cooking, Selling, Parallel Parking, Marriage and Happiness." The literati, those erudite academic phonies who are my critics, will say, "What qualifies this idiot to write about cooking, selling, marriage and happiness?" They will assert that parallel parking is not even worthy of