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Industry Dive targets Europe

Industry Dive, of the US, is acquiring the NewsCred content marketing platform. The move signals the B2B publisher’s international ambitions just 10 months after it became majority-owned by Falfurrias Capital Partners in a deal valued at some $70m, 10 x EBITDA.

The acquisition includes NewsCred’s 100+ client roster, adds 40 employees to Industry Dive’s 185 headcount and expands its presence from its Washington DC base to New York, London and Bangladesh. NewsCred will retain its publishing software business.

The financials of the deal have not been disclosed but it may be worth almost the $100m so far invested in NewsCred’s whole business.

The acquisition will help the advertising-funded IndustryDive to sell custom ads in its 22 digital newletters whose audience is more than 11 million business executives across 20 niche industries, including banking, biotech, pharmaceuticals, construction, education, grocery, marketing, retail, smart cities, transport, and waste.

The deal also signals the ambition to develop in Europe, especially the UK.

Founded in 2012, Industry Dive has been profitable almost since the start and is growing fast, despite general economic slowdown. Revenue has increased from $22m to $30m in the past two years and is expected to increase by at least 25% in 2020. The company says April-June this year was its “best quarter ever” for revenue and profit. EBITDA margins are believed to be almost 30%.

Industry Dive publishes more than 100 stories a day, with loads of bullet points and a real emphasis on quick news. It is good journalism in a neat package with no pretence about the standardisation involved: “The products we sell are the same. It’s the Southwest model—buy one type of plane and then everyone knows how to work on it,” says CEO and co-founder Sean Griffey who suggests that each of the company’s 20 verticals could eventually generate revenue of $10-20 million in digital newsletter advertising spend. Retail is currently the largest vertical, and waste is growing fast.

This potentially game-changing acquisition comes a year after the UK-based Future Plc acquired Industry Dive’s rival and near-neighbour SmartBrief for an initial sum of $45m and a 2020 performance payment of up to $20m.

Apart from representing a major move into B2B, it has been assumed that Future would want to launch a similar newsletter business back home. But Industry Dive may just get there first.

IndustryDive