Bidding to create the premier East coast show, and at the same time effectively admitting Unix alone is no longer enough for a trade show, Blenheim Group USA Inc is combining Unix+NT Expo, DB/Expo and Internet+Intranet Expo to form a single show from next year. Billed as IT Forum, it will run from September 16 to 18 at New York’s Jacob Javits Convention Center. Meantime, rumor suggests the event might become a Softbank Comdex show even before the current Unix Expo closes its doors next month. The unconfirmed suggestion is that acquisitive Reed Elsevier NV has been bidding for the UK’s financially troubled Blenheim Group and that by the time of Comdex Fall will have snared its quarry, in which the first thing it would do would be to sell Blenheim’s technical shows to Softbank. We already know that Softbank Comdex wouldn’t mind buying both Unix Expo and PC Expo off of Blenheim. Blenheim didn’t return our calls.
