The Knot and The Wedding Channel

The Knot has finished courting the Wedding Channel and consummated a transaction valued at US$57.9 million in cash plus the issue of 1.15 million shares of common stock. The Wedding Channel has won several key patent lawsuits in the past few years involving the concept of an online wedding registry that seemed to make an acquisition of some kind inevitable. Both sites have deep relationships around gift registry with retailers and resort groups, including Bloomingdale's, Crate and Barrel, The Home Depot, JC Penney, Macy's, Neiman Marcus, Pottery Barn, Starwood Hotels, Sandals Resorts, Tiffany & Co. and Williams-Sonoma. The combination of The Knot and the Wedding Channel will create the largest online wedding resource. Both companies have been acquisition targets of larger Internet players over the years.