The company was founded in 1902 by Miller Freeman, a fishing industry magnate, Republican party activist, and the founder and leader of Washington State's
Anti-Japanese League. Many of its publications were trade and marketing periodicals distributed free to qualified subscribers in specific industries. Miller Freeman was acquired by United Newspapers in January 1985, but continued to be run by Marshall Freeman, the founder's grandson, until 2000. In 1991, Miller Freeman Publications merged with Gralla Publications to create Miller Freeman, Inc. Gralla's operations comprised twenty magazines and many trade shows serving markets in the travel, retail, and merchandising arenas. In 1992, Miller Freeman acquired M&T Publishing, Inc. and its four magazines in the software development and networking markets. During the Internet economic boom of the middle and late 1990s, the company moved aggressively to acquire many technology publications centered on the Internet and telecommunications industries, including the Blenheim Group, producers of the PC EXPO trade show (1996). The company was also notable for publishing
Game Developer. In 1999 United News and Media spent $900 million to acquire
CMP Media, a leading publisher of high-tech magazines, to complement its Miller Freeman holdings. Some of Miller Freeman, including the book division, was merged into their CMP equivalents, retaining the CMP rather than the Miller Freeman name. The music book division was renamed Backbeat Books which later sold to
Hal Leonard. (music magazine division was renamed Music Player Network which later divested with the rest of CMP Entertainment Media to
NewBay Media and today is a part of
Future US). In 2000, as part of United News and Media's divestiture of assets, the part of Miller Freeman Inc. which had not been merged into CMP was acquired by VNU for a reported price of $650 million (€695 million). The slightly smaller European portion of Miller Freeman was sold to Reed Elsevier with a few other smaller sales. At the time of divestiture, Miller Freeman assets included 81 magazines, 59 trade shows and related conferences and exhibitions, and various Web sites in five major categories: real estate and construction, sports & apparel, jewelry and gifts, travel and Latin America. Miller Freeman, Inc. trademark was formerly owned by
UBM, a subsidiary of Informa, but the trademark was abandoned in 2001. ==Impact==