Last month’s pause for breath was very temporary, and M&A advisers and lawyers have not had much time off for summer with 13 transactions announced in the last five weeks. This brings the years total so far to 62 transactions, edging closer to 2018’s record total of 87 with five months still to go.
Hyve – foot down on the M&A pedal
Once again Hyve is leading the way, keeping its foot on the M&A pedal.
In early July, Hyve acquired LegalTechTalk and the business, subsequently analysed by Flashes & Flames. It followed this 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 by Michael Amar, Charlie Meraud, Henri Delahaye and Hadrien de Cournon 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 to receive specialist support in its early phase of growth.
Easyfairs consolidates US growth – and it’s AI
There was more AI related M&A activity this month from Easyfairs which has acquired The AI Conference based in San Francisco. It 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’ second US acquisition after acquiring Energy Projects Conference & Expo last year. It came in a busy week which also saw it finalize the acquisition of XPO Group in Belgium, which DealMakers first covered here in June.
After AI it’s Cybersecurity
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 organizer QG Media in 2024. The acquisition significantly expanded its events footprint in critical infrastructure and manufacturing security. The investment is to drive a new phase of growth, to exploit the accelerating adoption of AI.
And after Cybersecurity, it’s Space
Acquisitions in the Space sector are also gaining popularity and Nineteen Group haa made its first foray into the 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 organizer. But, after one edition of the Farnborough show, peace was restored. ADS, the organization behind Farnborough which is also the UK’s trade association for aerospace, defence, security, and space, agreed not to run the show again and to support Space-Comm which ,subsequently, launched editions in Scotland and Dubai. Now it has found a home at Nineteen, which and they has a new sector.
APAX re-enters the events arena
APAX Funds has re-entered the events arena with the acquisitions of techoraco and Institutional Investor from Epiris-owned 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). techoraco 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 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 the former Emap Plc in a deal valued at approximately £1bn which, ultimately, became Ascential. That was subsequently sold to Informa.
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 seventh investment, acquiring a stake in Nexus Labs, a US 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. Nineteen 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.
And in other news…
GL Events has acquired MCO Congres a Professional Congress Organiser founded in 1990 and specialising in the organisation of scientific and medical conferences and congresses.
A Place in The Sun Live has acquired the Property Investor Show from Property Investor Media, bringing together the UK’s two largest property events. They are both long-running events – A Place in the Sun Live was launched in 2005 on the back of the UK’s Channel 4 TV show, while the Property Investor Show was launched in 2002. The two events, held in London and Birmingham, will be combined at Excel and NEC respectively from 2027.
C2S | The Growth Consultancy) a UK-based business network, growth platform, and executive membership organization, has acquired Future Tech Events. The portfolio consists of the National Cyber Awards, originally co-founded in 2018 by C2S, and the National AI Awards, launched in 2024.
