Steve Monnington, CEO of Mayfield Merger Strategies, reports on an unprecedented time for events M&A.
It’s consolidation time
We are now entering a new consolidation phase for events M&A after the hyperactivity of the last couple of months which saw four Private Equity firms – Providence/Searchlight, Hellman & Friedman and Apollo – invest $5.5bn in the acquisitions of CloserStill Media, Hyve, Emerald and Questex.
PE firms want to deploy capital quickly in their new investments and we usually see an uptick in follow on M&A activity in the following 6 months. They will be pushing on an open door when it comes to UK domiciled founder-led businesses whose owners are focusing on potential increases in Capital Gains Tax rates in the next budget with a new prime minister imminent. Talk of funding black holes and the need for tax rises (with Capital Gains Tax singled out) doesn’t make for easy reading and several founders who have decided to sell are thinking of accelerating their sale processes.
This combination of factors is likely to accelerate M&A activity in the short term in what is already shaping up to be a record year. At half time there have been 50 deals announced which means that 2026 is on track to surpass 2018, the busiest year ever with 87 transactions.
Hyve continues acquiring.
The $1.8bn valuation for Hyve from Hellman & Friedman was achieved through a massive transformation in the type of events in their portfolio where traditional trade exhibitions have given way to content-rich and meetings-led events such as ShopTalk, Fintech Meetup and POSSIBLE. They have continued this trend with two more acquisitions.
Virtuosi League is a leadership, learning and community platform for C-Suite marketing professionals and has built a distinctive position within the marketing industry through its executive forums, leadership development programs, proprietary thought leadership, and curated peer-to-peer community including senior leaders from brands such as Amazon, AT&T, Google, Hyatt, KraftHeinz and Verizon. The acquisition continues the strategy of investing in market-leading, founder-led businesses that occupy trusted positions at the centre of growing industry ecosystems and builds on the position they took in the marketing sector when they acquired POSSIBLE in 2024.
LegalTechTalk iwas founded by Bradley Collins and Mikkel Jensen in 2024. The UK event has run three times so far and the USA launch is scheduled for the end of 2027 in Miami. This is a sector where events have been traditionally conference driven and rather dry affairs and has been ripe for change. Although still early stage, LegalTechTalk has many of the attributes that Hyve looks for in their acquisitions – the building of a premium meeting place for the people driving change across the industry. The interest in disruptive events for the legal sector was first highlighted in October last year when Law Business Research acquired Legal Geek, the first festival style legal events organiser, founded in 2015.
First events acquisition for Life Science Connect
Life Science Connect (LSC) has acquired UK based Life Science Networks (LSN). This is another example of an early stage business but one where the acquisition has an added dimension. LSC is a digital content marketing and lead generation platform that connects life sciences service providers with a highly specialized, permission-based audience but up to now has lacked the live events offering. LSN, founded in 2023 by former Informa executives Luke Bilton, Chris Kilbee and Sandy Voss, is LSC’s first events acquisition and will form the base for future events expansion. Their portfolio includes CDMO Live Europe (Rotterdam) and Americas (Boston), an executive conference focused on contract development and manufacturing in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. The company also operates PharmaSource, a digital community and media platform and runs External Manufacturing Leaders, an invitation-only executive forum for senior pharmaceutical executives responsible for outsourced manufacturing strategy.
Founders give their advice
The high number of transactions in 2025 and so far in 2026 and the expectations of more activity in the sale of founder-led businesses in the next few months will refuel the debate around whether there will be enough good businesses to acquire. Demand from PE owned organisers is at an all-time high and it is essential that more potential founders are supported to create businesses that acquirers want to buy.
Manta Media is one such company dedicated to supporting and supercharging growth in founder-led businesses and they have recently conducted a series of interviews – Launch, Scale, Exit – with successful exited founders. In wide ranging interviews they were all asked “what would you tell your younger self”?
Jason Franks, Founder, EMEX (sold to Mark Allen Group) & UK Metals Expo (sold to Easyfairs)
“Validate demand before you fall in love with the idea.”
Jason’s first event, launch a consumer show, collapsed before EMEX or UKME ever launched. He doesn’t regret the lesson, but he wouldn’t repeat it – chasing B2B demand he could actually test mattered more than chasing a concept he simply liked.
Serge Dive, Founder, This is Beyond (sold to Emerald)
“Lock in the biggest names in the room before you launch.”
Serge’s one real failure wasn’t the format or the market – it was launching without first securing full backing from the key players. In any market, a handful of names carry the credibility that everyone else follows.
Jimmy Vestbirk, Founder, Legal Geek (sold to Law Business Research)
“Bring in experienced people sooner than feels necessary.”
Jimmy built Legal Geek without a legal background and without a senior team for longer than he should have. The instincts that get you started aren’t always the ones that scale a business – hiring for that gap earlier could have saved years.
Aldo Mazzocco, Co-founder and Chairman, Data Center Nation (Sold to Opus Origin)
“Focus beats speed in the first three years.”
Trying to do too much too early was Aldo’s biggest regret. A sharply differentiated value proposition and disciplined, organic growth mattered more than chasing every market at once.
Dan Cockerton, Co-founder, Digital Accountancy Show (sold to Easyfairs)
“Start rebooking exhibitors from edition one.”
Skipping rebooking in year one meant almost starting from scratch the next. Dan would also have got on top of the P&L sooner.
Toby Walters, Co-founder, Cruise Ship Interior Design (sold to CloserStill Media)
“Your spreadsheet is hiding about 30% of your real costs.”
It took years for Toby to understand money in versus money out. His advice now? Keep the books current, file on time and build a budget format that captures every cost – the true number is always higher than it looks.
Joshua Bull, Founder, Energy Projects Conference & Expo (sold to Easyfairs)
“Sort your cross-border tax position before you scale internationally.”
Running a global event out of a UK-registered company felt like a non-issue day-to-day – until formal due diligence began. Joshua recommends getting tax advice early on any filing obligations tied to where you operate.
There are a lot of valuable lessons in the full interviews for aspiring founders, or those who are partway through the journey from launch to sale,. https://www.mantamediacap.com/insights
Transactions announced since the last column.
| Buyer/Investor | Business | Sector | Country |
| Hyve | Virtuosi League | Marketing | USA |
| Hyve | LegalTechTalk | Legal | UK |
| Life Science Connect | Life Science Networks | Life Science | Europe/USA |
| Easyfairs | Nordic Live Expo | Portfolio | Sweden/Norway |
| Smartwork Media | JA Jewelery Show (Emerald) | Jewelery | USA |
| Hero Media & Entertainment | KD Media | Legal, Property, Drink | UK |