More on the big B2B consolidation story which started last weekend: After the news came out that UBM and Informa were in early talks for a $6 billion merger, some more bidders have emerged for Informa: The owners of German publisher Springer Science & Business Media are considering a possible bid. PE firms Candover and Cinven, which own Springer Science, were in the early stages of thinking about a bid, which means they are a step behind UBM.

Other PE groups circling Informa in recent weeks include Carlyle and Apax, although with the PE market being what it is, it would have difficulty competing with a trade player, reports Times UK. Two years ago, Candover and Cinven made a 630p-a-share takeover approach for Informa to merge with Springer, but after several weeks talks between Informa and the PE firms broke down.

And following the news leak, more analysis of the possible merger:
-- Independent: With a market cap of around £1.6bn, Informa is actually the larger of the two, compared with UBM’s £1.5bn value. But a series of acquisitions – not least the £502m purchase of Datamonitor, the market intelligence group, last May – have left investors wary of Informa’s debts and the share price has been on the slide.
-- Telegraph 1: A combined group would also be better placed to make large-scale divestments without undermining the remaining business. Paul Richards of Numis Securities highlights Informa’s £250m turnover training business Performance Improvement and UBM’s PR Newswire, worth up to £350m, as possible candidates for sale.
-- Telegraph 2: Another story, which asks for the two companies to drop the pretenses, and make it an acquisition rather than a merger, based on Informa’s perceived weaknesses: “In the interests of shareholder value - the only thing that counts here - Levin should drop the fig leaf of equality and pay a premium and Rigby should accept it in return for leaving the business and ceding control to UBM management.”

• B2B Consolidation: Informa and UBM In Early Merger Talks; Would Create $6 Billion Giant