Ziff Davis Puts DigitalLife Expo on the Block

Source: Publisher in sale talks for cancelled tech event.

By Jason Fell
09/03/2008

Ziff Davis Media has put its DigitalLife Expo—the annual trade show it cancelled this year due to poor economic conditions—on the block, FOLIO: has learned.

According to a knowledgeable source, Ziff Davis is in negotiations for the sale of the technology event. Other details, such as how many groups are interested and how much the event might fetch, remained unclear.

Paul O'Reilly, vice president of Ziff's event marketing group, declined to comment on the sale other than to say that the company is "looking at all its options for bringing the DigitalLife brand bigger and stronger in 2009."

Ziff Davis recently cancelled the 2008 event, citing poor economic conditions. "We couldn't get the event to the size and scale of previous years," O'Reilly told FOLIO: last week. "We just weren't confident that we could do the brand justice."

The DigitalLife Expo launched in 2004 and attracted 24,000 attendees. In 2006, according to O'Reilly, the event had grown to 50,000 attendees.

The event had been produced in partnership with Ziff's PC Magazine.

Ziff Davis Media, which also publishes Electronic Gaming magazine and ExtremeTech.com, filed for bankruptcy protection in March as part of a debt restructuring plan. In June, the publisher announced that a New York court confirmed its reorganization plan, and that it expected to emerge from bankruptcy protection this summer.