July 5 Deal Announcement Date Smells Fishy; Incisive/ALM, NewBay/Imas

As a reporter, you sometimes dread quiet, holiday weeks. Just when you think that business is asleep for the summer–at least for the July 4 holiday, say–something big happens. And it always seems to happen right before deadline.

This week, the big news items were Wasserco’s sale of ALM to British publisher Incisive Media (for $630 million), and NewBay’s buy of Imas Publishing (terms not disclosed). (See the full reports in this week’s min’s b2b.)

I found it curious that both deals were announced the day after July 4. Usually, a holiday week, a day before or after a holiday, is a good time to announce bad news. This time, that’s not the case.

Steve Palm, CEO of NewBay, told me that they just wanted to announce the deal as soon as it was done, and it got done yesterday. A spokesperson for ALM said the same thing.

I guess it was just a lazy summer week after all….