The US-based, listed B2B events company Emerald Holdings has bought the assets of Advertising Week from Stillwell Partners. Over 110k attendees and 3k speakers are claimed to visit the events across cities including London, Tokyo, Mexico City, New York, and Sydney. The events, which have a marketing, tech, media and culture focus supplemented by online learning, were founded in 2004 by Matt Scheckner and Lance Pillersdorf who will continue to lead the business for Emerald.
Advertising Week is said to have generated $16m in revenue for 2019 but going digital in pandemic year 2020 halved the revenue which rebounded to $13m in 2021. This year, it is expected to exceed $16m. Hervé Sedky, Emerald CEO, said the undisclosed cash deal included incentive payments for the founders until at least 2026. The strategy includes plans to establish a second European base and also build its presence in Africa and East Asia. AWAfrica is already planned for Johannesburg in 2023.
Emerald Holdings grew its revenues to $145m last year and expects to reach $300m in 2022.
