TechTarget Shareholders Vote to Combine with Informa Tech
By: Christiana Sciaudone
TechTarget shareholders voted to combine with the digital businesses of Informa Tech today.
The parties anticipate closing the transaction on December 2 after which New TechTarget’s shares are expected to trade on Nasdaq under the stock ticker symbol “TTGT.”
Informa said in January it would fold its Informa Tech digital businesses, including Industry Dive and Netline, into a combined company and provide $350 million of cash in exchange for a 57% stake.
“We wanted to be the majority shareholder. We wanted it to be a controlled company in the jargon,” Stephen A. Carter, Informa’s Group Chief Executive, said on an earnings call at the time. “We wanted it to be a separate company, to be a pure-play, to be rooted in the American market, where the customers are, where the value is, where the valuation is. But we wanted to be the majority partner, but to have a governance that allowed that company to be the best it could be in its market whilst also being a firm part of the Informa Group.”
Carter said running B2B digital services as a pure play is the most efficient way of driving scale.
A combined company this year would have generated estimated revenue of $500 million. Informa and TechTarget estimate that five years after the deal closes, the business will be generating more than $1 billion in revenue with stronger EBITDA margins and faster YoY revenue growth thanks to a funnel in the B2B marketing operation and an expansion of industries in which TechTarget will be able to operate in.
TechTarget said in its original investor presentation that this merger would expand its B2B verticals from two to 20 and its customer base from ~3,400 to ~8,600. The total audience would also grow from ~30 million people to 50 million, giving it significant scale for B2B marketers.
The new Informa will be comprised of the following divisions:
- Informa Markets, which is its transaction-led live and on-demand b2b events business with over 300 brands across 20 markets. It’s expected to generate $2.4 billion next year.
- Informa Connect, which is its content-led live and on-demand b2b events business. There are over 400 brands across six markets. It’s expected to generate $1 billion next year.
- Informa Festivals, which is 10+ brands, including the recently added Ascential assets (Cannes Lions & Money20/20). It’s expected to generate $500 million next year.
- Academic Markets, aka Taylor & Francis, which has a number of journals, publishing imprints, etc. and is expected to generate $900 million next year.
- Informa TechTarget, which is this new portfolio.
