Here’s a story that’s been all over the national business news that has a very strong B2B angle: The hostile takeover attempt at CNET by Jana Partners and Sandell Asset Management, two massive hedge funds.

I won’t go into details, because I write a lengthy article about it in this week’s min’s b2b (I’ll link to the subscribe page here, because it’s just easier for me than retyping the 1,700 words in this blog), but, suffice it to say, I think that B2B media execs, especially those in the tech publishing space should be following closely. That means you, Bob Carrigan (IDG), Steve Weitzner (Ziff Davis Enterprise), David Levin (CMP), Jason Young (Ziff Davis), and Greg Strakosch (TechTarget). I would also advise that smaller operators, those of e-media startups and small content companies, watch this story closely–especially the company’s stock price, which can be found here.

(Hint: Right now, based on the company’s stock price, it would sell at about 23xEBITDA. Chew on that.)

For everyone’s benefit, I’m taking a little break from blogging today, b2b-ers.  Enjoy these words of wisdom from Jim Casella.  You can also check out his blog here.

As we start the new year, the word that keeps coming up in politics and business is “momentum.” Hillary lost it in Iowa but regained it in New Hampshire. McCain lost it six months ago when his campaign started to run out of money before he had run any ads, but he regained it in New Hampshire and hopes to keep it in Michigan and South Carolina. Rudy believes he will gain it in Florida, but it could be too late in the game going into Super Tuesday, February 5th. Mitt claims he has won two silvers, but silvers do not give you momentum. Edwards clearly does not have it and pressure will mount on him to get out of the race after South Carolina and make it a two-person race for the Democratic nomination. Huckabee claims he had it for a moment in Iowa, but he lost it in New Hampshire. Obama clearly has it, but it slowed down a bit in New Hampshire. One of the candidates in each party will certainly grab the momentum ring on Super Tuesday and ride it to the White House in November.

It is clear that winning or coming close against great odds can establish momentum. The Giants lost to the Patriots in late December, but by playing his first team and coming close, Tom Coughlin gave the Giants the momentum they needed to beat the Bucs on the road in the wild card NFC playoff game and beat the Cowboys this past Sunday to get into the NFC Championship game. The Packers seemed to lose it towards the end of the season, but they regained it in the snow at Lambeau Field against the Seahawks. It brought back memories of Lombardi’s Packers, with Hornung, Taylor and Bart Starr in their glory years. Brett Favre keeps getting better with age! The Patriots continue to have it as they move closer to running the table. Can they be denied before Super Sunday, February 3rd? Not if momentum has anything to do with it.

min’s b2b keeps us informed every week on which publications and categories are hot and have momentum and which continue to be under pressure. Up until this past year, Hanley-Wood clearly had momentum, particularly with its residential titles. Its focused approach was a winning hand, just as enterprise computing was from ‘92-’01 when CMP, IDG and Ziff Davis rode the momentum wave. Google has it while Yahoo! has clearly lost it. Will Google be able to maintain it during this cooling-down period if it cannot introduce an innovative new product to complement search?

The media business is very similar to politics and sports. When you are winning and on top, it feels like it will last forever. But as Andy Grove, the former CEO of Intel, and others have stated, “only the paranoid survive.” Those of us who grew up on the advertising side of the business know how quickly fortunes can change and how difficult it can be to represent a property that is not #1 or #2 in its category.

As managers, we need to make certain that our businesses are constantly innovating to insure that we are not in the position of losing momentum for our core brands. Media brands with significant good will and brand equity will allow for tarnished brands to be rebuilt, but it is very challenging. Does anyone recall brands like Atari and Sega, which were once the leading video game platforms and seemed invincible? Keep checking those scorecards and doing research to insure that your leading properties will deliver strong results in ‘08 and beyond.

I’m sorry. When Steve Weitzner was ousted at CMP and given what I’ll call a “soft landing” as the head of international biz dev, I asked David Levin, CEO of UBM (parent to CMP), point blank if Weitzner was being kicked upstairs or actually promoted. Levin told me that he was being promoted and that the proof would be whether in two months he was doing his job or not. Well, here’s the proof. So, first, apologies for dropping the ball on that. The summer before last I was unafraid to call a spade a spade when Bob Krakoff ousted Mike Marchesano over at what was then VNU Business Media (now Nielsen Business Media). That story was juicy and hard to resist: Krakoff had had his eye on that job from the minute he left Advanstar two years earlier. And Marchesano, no slouch, would have known that. I’ll try to be more on point from now on.

How Could They Let Him Go?

I read an article on Foliomag.com about this. I don’t know much about the contract that Weitzner was under, or what the actual status of his departure was. (I imagine that as time puts distance between the world and this event, I will find out one way or another.) I agree with the article, though. It’s ludicrous for CMP to allow Weitzner to go to a direct rival so soon after completing his tenure as CEO. I talk more about it in this week’s issue of min’s b2b. I also discuss the real significance of the Weitzner move going forward. There are two main points. Don’t be a square: Be a subscriber and read it! (Especially you i-bankers.) For those of you that aren’t subscribers, email me, and we’ll see what we can do: jgreenfield@accessintel.com. And click here to read the Folio article mentioned above.

Little trickles of news, rumors, come in after the appointment of Steve Weitzner as CEO of Ziff Davis Enterprise….

My sources tell me that CMP will be appointing a new CEO in February.  Stay tuned.

Also, stay tuned for much more on Weitzner’s move to ZDE later this week here and in the upcoming issue of min’s b2b, where we talk with the man himself.

When a CEO is “transitioned” from the role of CEO to another role within the company, this is often a face-saving move by both the company and the CEO when a parting of ways is imminent. Often the hallmark of this move is that the “transitioning” CEO ends up leaving the company within a year or so. We’ve seen that several times in B2B media in the past few years.

I don’t think this is that kind of move; I don’t think Weitzner is being “kicked upstairs.”

CMP/UBM is a very communicative company. Over the summer, when the company fired 200 of its 1,100 or so employees, Weitzner and Alix Raine, the corporate communicator at the company, called me and some of my colleagues at rival publications ahead of time to let us know what was happening and to let us know they’d be open to answering any questions we had. Though they put a positive spin on the story, they didn’t hesitate to acknowledge the negatives (premium content), that people were losing their jobs, and that that was not a pleasant prospect. It’s not my experience that CMP tries to hide things. It’s not David Levin’s (UBM CEO) way, it’s not Raine’s way, and, besides, UBM, being a publicly traded company in the UK, has a culture of disclosure.

That being said, there is a mystery here. If the company is making more money, as Levin said, and if the transition is going well, and if the move is mutually agreed upon and amicable, why not wait until there’s another executive in place ready to step into the role? It just seems a little too urgent. I think there is probably more here than has been written today, though I do believe the company is being fairly forthright in this case…I aim to find out next week at the ABM Top Management Meeting.

And, I’d like to add that I like Steve very much and that he’s been a great guide for me personally since I entered this industry. Every time I’ve reached out to him for advice–both about the industry and about my personal development–he’s been very helpful. And so, I wish him great luck in this next stage of his career; however, if his 23 year career at CMP is any indication, luck probably will have very little to do with it.

Apologies for my recent absense, minsiders. I’ve been spending all week preparing to leave. In a few days time, I’ll be relaxing on a beautiful North East beach, barring any more hurricanes. But, all this is not your concern. Here are some of the thoughts I’ve had this week regarding the news.

Mackler is back: When I spoke with Paul Mackler about his purchase of HMP Communications, he said that he was looking to expand the business by acquisitions and organically, but that HMP was going to stay exclusively in the healthcare market. This struck me as odd, because Mackler’s last job was in building a large, fully diversified B2B company: Cygnus. Is this new strategy a slight dig at his old one?

Penton and John French: John French’s myocardial infarction made it into the New York Post this past week. We here at min think that Keith Kelly sometimes crosses the line in his reporting between business and personal, and relevant informatino and speculation. Regardless, our only thoughts on the matter, presently, are to wish John a speedy recovery.

PC World v. PC Magazine: I was contacted by the PR agency that represents PC Magazine this week because Jim McCabe, VP/publisher of the book, wanted to make comment on the new PC World redesign. That call never ended up happening, but I thought it interesting that McCabe would want to comment on his biggest rival. Most publishers hesitate to talk about their rivals. I wonder what he would have said.

Sys Admin: This week in min’s b2b, I talked with Charlie Shively, new helmer of CMP’s software group. He was telling me about the reasons for Sys Admin’s decline and eventual shuttering. It’s still 100% unclear as to why Sys Admin has so many ad pages this year, even if you don’t consider an 80 page insert it had in January. I honestly believe that Kerry Gates, the now-ex publisher, was giving away severely dicounted pages in Sys Amin’s final hours just to gouge the competition. Is this an unethical practice? I don’t know.

Have a great week minsiders. I’ll see you after Labor Day.