Steve Monnington, CEO of Mayfield Merger Strategies, reports on a record month for the number of event transactions.
We have seen 12 transactions since the last TBOA column – a record since we started reporting on M&A more than 15 years ago. This brings the years total so far to 62 transactions, edging closer to 2018’s record total of 87 with 5 months still to go.
APAX re-enters the events arena
After the recent mega deals involving Providence & Searchlight, Apollo Funds and Hellman and Friedman we have another investment that brings a fresh-faced PE firm into our sector. APAX Funds has re-entered the events arena with the acquisitions of techoraco and Institutional Investor from Delinian. techoraco operates a portfolio of global conferences, trade exhibitions, and digital intelligence platforms serving the digital infrastructure sector (data centers, cloud computing, connectivity, and network infrastructure). The business was created by Delinian in 2024 as an umbrella platform to consolidate six legacy digital infrastructure, telecoms, and technology event/media brands that had been acquired over the previous two decades including Capacity Media, International Telecoms Week, BroadGroup / Datacloud, TowerXchange and Women in Tech.
Institutional Investor was founded in 1967 starting as a monthly financial magazine before expanding into events and data. It now has three core areas – Capital Introduction & Membership Networks, Media, Research & Market Intelligence and Global Events & Summits. The events division comprises over 90 events incorporating strategic roundtables and high-level networking and held in major financial hubs across the world including New York, London and Hong Kong
Apax Partners has previous involvement in the events sector, teaming up with Guardian Media Group in 2008 to acquire the B2B division of Emap in a deal valued at approximately £1 billion which ultimately became Ascential.
New Private Equity Investment – this time from Peak Rock Capital
Information Security Media Group (ISMG), the cybersecurity intelligence and education company has received strategic growth investment from an affiliate of Peak Rock Capital, a PE firm with deep experience in building information services and technology businesses. ISMG was founded by Sanjay Kalra 20 years ago and he still serves as CEO, growing the company to a network of 38 media properties with more than 400 global events annually. The majority of the growth has been organic with a few acquisitions along the way including acquiring a majority stake in London based conference organiser QG Media in 2024. The acquisition significantly expanded their events footprint in critical infrastructure and manufacturing security. The investment is to drive a new phase of growth, both organic and acquisition based to take advantage of the accelerating adoption of AI.
Hyve keeps up the M&A pace
Hyve followed up last month’s acquisitions of Legal TechTalk and Virtuoso League with the acquisition of Paris-based tech events company Chain of Events to create a new AI vertical. This is a three-event portfolio comprising RAISE Summit (AI), Machina Summit (physical AI and robotics) and Signal Week (Blockchain and Crypto). The business was founded in 2017 to launch Paris BlockChain Week which has subsequently changed its name to Signal Week. RAISE was launched in 2024 and MACHINA is a new launch which will join Hyve’s Global Ventures division where it will receive specialist support in its early phase of growth and establishment.
Easyfairs consolidates US growth
There was more AI related M&A activity this month from Easyfairs who have acquired The AI Conference based in San Francisco. The AI Conference was launched by founder and tech entrepreneur Shon Burton in 2023. Burton also founded MLconf (Machine Learning) which was sold to Modality IQ in 2020. This is Easyfairs 2nd U.S. acquisition after acquiring Energy Projects Conference & Expo last year and came in a busy week which also saw them finalise the acquisition of XPO Group in Belgium which Dealmakers first covered in June.
Nineteen Group finds space for another deal
Nineteen Group have made their first foray into the Space sector with the acquisition of Space-Comm Expo Europe from Lunar Ridge Ventures. Space-Comm Expo has quite the history. The show, covering space technology, defence, aerospace, and satellite infrastructure, was launched in 2021 by Rob Sherwood and Christie Day through Hub Exhibitions who partnered with Farnborough International, the venue for the event. The partnership lasted until early 2024 when Farnborough decided to end the partnership and launch its own rival event – Farnborough International Space Show – which forced Space-Comm to turn to Lunar Ridge Ventures for investment and to move to Excel for their 2025 event. Sector stakeholders hate it when exhibition organisers create head-on competition and there was a general unease about a venue competing with an independent organiser but, after one edition of the Farnborough show, peace was restored and Space-Comm have subsequently launched editions in Scotland and Dubai.
Second events acquisition for Life Science Connect
Life Science Connect (LSC) has followed up last month’s acquisition of UK based Life Science Networks with the acquisition of Precision Medicine World Conference, an event founded in 2009 and held in Santa Clara dedicated to precision medicine. It fits well with LSC’s Drug Discovery, Cell & Gene, Clinical, and RNA communities and is a continuation of LSC’s live events strategy.
Seventh investment for EVG
The Events Venture Group’s activities are gathering pace as it makes its 7th investment, acquiring a stake in Nexus Labs, a U.S. company dedicated to the Connected Buildings sector through its portfolio of products including its annual conference NexusCon, virtual conference series NexusCast, and subscription intelligence product Nexus Pro. Nexus Labs was founded by James Dice and Rosy Khalife and was initially launched as the Nexus Newsletter by Dice while he was working at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. It has since grown into a media, education, and events platform for the connected/smart buildings industry. 19 of the EVG members have participated in the investment making it the largest EVG syndication so far.
Messe Frankfurt shines a light on the UK
Messe Frankfurt has acquired LiGHT Expo London from [d]arc media, the publishers behind arc and darc magazines, The event was first held in 2022 was designed specifically as a high-end specification show for architects, interior designers, lighting designers and engineers and was launched into the space left when Clarion Events closed LuxLive after the pandemic. LiGHT Expo London joins a global Light + Building portfolio with events held in Frankfurt, Buenos Aires, Dubai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Istanbul, Kuala Lumpur, Las Vegas, Mumbai, New Delhi, Shanghai and Tashkent.
Transactions announced since the last column.
| Buyer/Investor | Business | Sector | Country |
| Apax Funds | techoraco | Tech | Global |
| Apax Funds | Institutional Investor | Finance | Global |
| Peak Rock Capital | ISMG | Cyber | Global |
| Nineteen Group | Space-Comm Expo | Space | UK |
| Messe Frankfurt | Light Expo London | Lighting | UK |
| A Place in the Sun Live | Property Investor Show | Property | UK |
| C2S | The Growth Consultancy | Future Tech Events | Tech | UK |
| Easyfairs | The AI Conference | Tech | USA |
| Life Science Connect | Precision Medicine World Conference | Life Science | USA |
| Events Venture Group | Nexus Labs | Connected Buildings | USA |
| Hyve | Chain of Events | Tech | France |
| GL Events | MCO Congres | Medical | France |
Note: Parts of this column were first published in Flashes & Flames: Global Media Business Weekly