Thoughts on Mark Angelson’s Retirement from Donnelley

By Gail Nickel-Kailing on March 22nd, 2007

Tuesday’s announcement that Mark Angelson was retiring from RR Donnelley, made me think back to when he took over. Angelson became CEO of Donnelley in 2004 after the completion of the merger with MooreWallace, where he was also CEO after leading the merger of Moore Corporation and Wallace Computer Services. Whew!

(A side note, Thomas Quinlan – who has also served as EVP at Moore Corporation with Robert Burton Sr. Now they are on opposite sides of the table as Quinlan has been named President and CEO of Donnelley. Quinlan and Burton also worked together at World Color Press before it was acquired by Quebecor to form Quebecor World.)

It was the executive search announced in late 2003 that triggered speculationfrom WhatTheyThink.com that Angelson might be the type of candidate to take over leadership of Donnelley. A brief bio from that piece made it clear that he is an M&A expert, and Donnelley put that skill to good use!

Just a thought though: is his retirement and the placement of Quinlan – an operations guy – in the driver’s seat a sign that Donnelley’s intense period of acquisition is over?

Angelson – the M&A guy – has been plenty busy! Here are the deals from 2005 until now:

• $176 million – Perry-Judd’s
• $1.3 billion – Banta Corporation
• $412.5 million – Von Hoffman
• $250 million – Office Tiger
• $57.2 million – Poligrafia SA
• $95 million – Asia Printers Group
• $990 million – Astron Group

That’s a cool $3.3 billion! And add to that a few deals where the terms weren’t released:

• Canadian Bank Note
• Critical Mail Continuity Service Ltd.
• AdPlex Rhodes print operation in Indiana

There was one lone divestiture – the sale of Peak Technologies, terms not disclosed.