After the hyperactivity of the last few months, a sense of normality has returned to events M&A although, after committing $5.5bn to the acquisitions of CloserStill Media, Hyve, Emerald and Questex, the new owners – Providence/Searchlight, Hellman & Friedman and Apollo respectively – all seem keen to push forward with follow-on acquisitions.
At the same time, UK founders 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 doesn’t make for easy reading and several founders who have decided to sell are thinking of accelerating their sale processes. But, although it’s only speculation at this stage, this combination of factors may accelerate M&A activity in the short term in the UK.
Hyve: first out of the blocks
Hyve has wasted no time in announcing the acquisition of Virtuosi League, a leadership, learning and community platform for C-Suite marketing professionals. Virtuosi League has its roots in the creation of the Leadership Empowerment Acceleration Project (LEAP) in 2020, aimed at accelerating the leadership development of high potential individuals, This was set up as a three-way partnership between 5S Diversity, The Aspen Institute and the Yale School of Management. In November 2023, LEAP was folded into Virtuosi LEAP, owned and managed by Nadine Dietz.
Virtuosi League 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 $1.8bn valuation for Hyve from Hellman and Friedman was achieved through a massive transformation in the type of events in its portfolio, where traditional trade exhibitions have given way to content and meetings-led events such as ShopTalk, Fintech Meetup and POSSIBLE. The acquisition of Virtuosi League 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 it took in the marketing sector when acquiring POSSIBLE in 2024.
First events buy for Life Science Connect
Life Science Connect (LSC) has acquired UK based Life Science Networks (LSN) – a small but significant acquisition for LSC who were founded in 2002 and acquired by Corbel Capital Partners in December 2024. 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, something which new shareholders, including Douglas Emslie, were brought onboard to address.
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. Its 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.
It is very early in LSN’s life cycle for a transaction – CDMO Live Europe has only run twice and the US launch event will be later this year – but it’s a logical deal for both companies. LSC needs an events division and the LSN management have the experience and ability to leverage LSC’s assets to create one.
Easyfairs doubles down in Nordics
Last month, it was the acquisition of Xpo Group in Belgium and this month it’s the full ownership of Nordic Live Expo in Sweden, founded in 2019 and in which Easyfairs took a minority stake in the same year. Since then, the company has grown to a portfolio of more than 20 events, in the technology, public sector, industry, infrastructure and energy sectors in Stockholm and Oslo.
The acquisition of the remaining shares underlines Easyfairs strategy to develop the Nordic Region and allows the business to take advantage of Easyfairs’ international network, technology platforms and operational systems.
Another non-core disposal by Emerald
Emerald has sold the biannual JA New York jewelery show to Smartwork Media, owner of Instore, which will put it alongside itsNational Jeweler publication. JA New York dates back to 1906 when it was launched by the American National Retail Jewelers Association and has been through many owners since. It was acquired from the association by the former UK-based Blenheim in 1991 and subsequent higher level industry transactions saw the ownership change to UBM (Miller Freeman) then to VNU (renamed Nielsen). Onex Corporation acquired Nielsen Expositions and renamed the business Emerald Expositions.
This follows the sale by Emerald in May of NY Now, the biannual gift, home, jewellery and accessories wholesale exhibition, to Rockview Management Group.
Another strategic move from Informa
Informa Markets and MCH Group have entered into a joint venture to launch a new jewellery and watch trade fair called Basilia Jewellery & Watch Fair which will take place in Basel in April 2027. Basel has long been a centre for the watch and jewellery sector, but the key event for the sector, Baselworld, last took place in 2019 and it didn’t emerge after COVID. This is a very logical JV – Informa runs 14 jewellery fairs in 9 cities including Hong Kong, Istanbul and Dubai, while MCH has the experience of the Swiss market and the long-term ownership of Baselworld.
This follows last month’s announcement of a Memorandum of Understanding between Informa and the Hong Kong Tourism Board to establish a strategic partnership to bring international exhibitions to Hong Kong.
In other news
Hero Media & Entertainment, the Glasgow, Scotland-based media and events business, has acquired KD Media, organiser of the Scottish Legal Awards, Scottish Home Awards, Scottish Property Awards, Scottish Whisky Awards, Scottish Gin Awards and the In Whisky annual conference. The acquisition is part of its strategy to build a fully integrated media and events platform. It follows a series of recent acquisitions by the company, including Scottish Legal News, Scottish Housing News, Scottish Construction Now, Scottish Financial News, Irish Legal News, Daily Business group and the Scottish Construction Summit event.
People Inc., of the US, has acquired Hot Luck, an Austin food and music festival founded in 2017 by barbecue pitmaster Aaron Franklin, live-music promoter James Moody and Mike Thelin, co-founder of food festival Feast Portland.
