Relizon for Sale WASHINGTON—The Carlyle Group has put The Relizon Company, Dayton, Ohio, up for sale, according to Thedeal.com. The web site of The Deal, a financial newsweekly, first made the announcement in an article published yesterday. Relizon was formed in August 2000 when The Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, bought the Information Solutions Group of the Reynolds and Reynolds Company for about $360 million. Joe Lipscomb, a managing director of Carlyle Group who represented Carlyle on the Relizon board of directors, left Carlyle earlier this year, according to the company. A Carlyle spokesman says the firm does not comment on potential sales. "I think this is going to be good news and bad news for the independent segment, depending on who ends up with Relizon," says Jim Anderson, president of Corporate Development Associates, a Scottsdale, Ariz., intermediary firm specializing in the forms industry. "If a strategic buyer [such as R.R. Donnelley, Corporate Express or Standard Register] buys Relizon, that would not be good news for trade manufacturers that do business with Relizon." Relizon has historically outsourced more business than any of the majors, says Anderson, and if the outsourcing ends, the future of some trade manufacturers could be in jeopardy. On the other hand, he says, distributors should be "absolutely jubilant" about the news. When potential clients question whether distributors' firms are big enough to work with, distributors can point out that Relizon's future is uncertain, Anderson suggests. There could be another benefit, too. Typically, when there is turmoil at a large company, such as a merger or an acquisition, salespeople migrate to the independent segment. "This is a great opportunity for the independent distributor to keep their eyes open for Relizon reps," says Anderson. Furthermore, the potential sale of Relizon could cause uncertainty in the medical market. Relizon has several contracts with group purchasing organizations, and Novation issued Relizon a contract effective January 1. Two distributor organizations—American Solutions for Business and International Business Solutions Alliance—also received contracts with Novation. It's too early to tell who the potential buyers for Relizon might be. Anderson says the company's future could rest with "someone outside the box." He adds, "I wouldn't be surprised if someone like DHL would come out of the woodwork in response to FedEx buying Kinko's and UPS buying Mail Boxes, Etc." Carlyle Group is one of the largest private equity firms in the world with more than $25 billion under its management, according to the firm's web site. Relizon's revenues are approaching $1 billion, and the company employs 5,100 people, according to Carlyle. Relizon includes Wilmer, a Dayton, Ohio, independent manufacturer. Previously, Carlyle had expanded Relizon's business communications capabilities with the 2001 acquisition of Epsilon, a marketing solutions provider. Epsilon was sold in 2004 to Alliance Data Systems. Carlyle purchased Epsilon for about $190 million, according to its web site, and sold it for approximately $300 million, according to a press release issued by Alliance Data Systems.