суббота, 15 сентября 2012 г.

MONDAY MORNING - The Washington Post

Three partners of a closely held business information company inRockville have become partial owners of two Atlanta sports teams.

Todd Foreman, Bruce Levenson and Ed Peskowitz, who run UnitedCommunications Group in Rockville, are part of an investors' groupthat bought the NBA's Hawks and the NHL's Thrashers, plus theoperating rights to the Philips Arena in downtown Atlanta, from AOLTime Warner.

Their partners in the deal include a Boston businessman and twoAtlanta residents, one of whom is J. Rutherford Seydel, Ted Turner'sson-in-law, Levenson said. He would not say how much money he and hispartners put into the deal.

Levenson and Peskowitz were minority partners in the WashingtonWizards, the Capitals and the old Capital Center in the 1990s, and,Levenson said, that 'whetted our appetite for owning a sportsfranchise.' They sold their interest in the teams and the CapitalCenter in 1999.

The Atlanta teams, he said, 'have been owned by a big facelesscorporate giant for a long time. The fact that they've been on themarket for a long time has produced a lot of uncertainty with thecommunity and the employees. We'll be there for a lot of the gamesand to make sure the business gets done.'

UCG began as a company that Peskowitz and Levenson started in asecond-floor storage room above a liquor store in 1977. Both werereporters then for an energy newsletter in Washington. The firm hassince bought 35 companies and has 1,000 employees in offices inBoston; Lakewood, N.J.; and Fort Pierce, Fla. UCG sells onlinenewsletters, databases, information and other services in suchtechnical areas as banking and health regulations,telecommunications, technology and energy. The services cost from$195 to $250,000 a year.

'We'll bring to these teams the same skills we've brought when webuy companies for UCG,' Foreman said. 'We keep the people who drivethe business. We're not quick to cut head count and gut the place.'