The corporate view

If anyone has experience of shareholder expectation associated with the accumulation of a sizeable cash pile it is David Levin, chief executive of UK-based B2B publisher United Business Media. In 2008, having undertaken a series of disposals since taking over at the firm in 2005, Levin explored a tie-up with rival Informa that would have created a £3 billion B2B powerhouse. The short-lived approach came to nothing as it immediately flushed out a rival cash bid, however, and UBM has subsequently focused on much smaller bolt-on acquisitions. "We have made over 80 acquisitions in the last six years but very few of these
 have been in a contested environment – we have focused on smaller private and more
 complex deals," explains Levin (who was chief financial officer of this magazine’s parent in the 1990s and steered its acquisition of Institutional Investor).