United Business Media plc announces that it has acquired OAG Holdings Ltd on behalf of its wholly-owned subsidiary Commonwealth Business Media for a total cash consideration of £2.5m.OAG provides consolidated passenger and cargo flight information to the global aviation industry, playing a critical part in ensuring the industry’s operational efficiency. 

OAG’s airline schedule database holds historical and future flight details for 1,000 airlines and more than 3,500 airports, and currently tracks around 28 million departures per year.  OAG has more than 50,000 customers, including global and regional airlines, airports, global distribution systems, travel agencies, corporate travel planners, government bodies, aircraft manufacturers, freight forwarders and the travelling public.

The OAG business is highly complementary to, and will be integrated into, Commonwealth Business Media’s BACK Aviation database business (see www.backaviation.com).  The combined product offering will be the aviation industry’s most comprehensive data and intelligence business, providing information across all key areas of the aviation market.

In 2006, almost 50% of OAG’s estimated £24m revenues were derived from data and electronic products, a proportion that is expected to rise in future.  The remaining revenues were generated principally from print products.  Commonwealth’s management team has a track record of successfully developing print-centric businesses into data-driven, intelligence businesses.

Alan Glass, President & Chief Executive Officer of Commonwealth Business Media said:

“The acquisition of OAG gives Commonwealth a great opportunity to extend and enhance our aviation industry product portfolio.  Combining our existing BACK Aviation database products with those of OAG will enable us to build a set of market-leading, data-based workflow products that are integral to the everyday operations of the aviation industry worldwide.”
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