BrightTower Advises B2B Audience Development and Specialist Content Leader Industry Dive in Announced Sale to Informa PLC

Industry Dive, a leader in multi-market B2B audience development and high quality specialist digital content with 10+ years of experience in delivering award-winning journalism, backed by Falfurrias Capital Partners, has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Informa PLC, a leading international B2B markets, live and on-demand events and digital services group. The transaction is anticipated to close during the third quarter of 2022, subject to regulatory approval and the satisfaction of other closing conditions.

BrightTower, a New York City headquartered investment banking and M&A advisory services firm, served as exclusive financial advisor to Industry Dive in this transaction.

This new partnership will add Industry Dive’s audience development expertise, B2B digital marketing capabilities and 27 specialist business publications across 20+ industries to Informa’s existing portfolio of specialist B2B brands, which serve customers through leading live and on-demand events, including Black Hat, Enterprise Connect, World of Concrete and Content Marketing World, as well as through specialist research, digital content and digital demand services.

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“Joining Informa is an opportunity to more fully realize Industry Dive’s mission to reach the vast specialist audience in all its breadth and depth,” said Industry Dive CEO and Co-Founder Sean Griffey. “This new phase will see us continue to level up our editorial excellence, deepen our insights, and find new ways to serve our clients and partners. As the news and information environment for professionals gets noisier, Industry Dive will stand out even more as a source of original, useful, and in-depth knowledge.”

Founded in 2012 by Griffey and his two co-founders, Ryan Willumson and Eli Dickinson, Industry Dive delivers original news articles and analysis to carefully curated audiences of business leaders and decision-makers. Now, nearly 13 million executives and leaders, including readers at all of the Fortune 100 companies, get their news via 27 web-based publications and more than 70 daily and weekly email newsletters.

“Like Informa, Industry Dive champions the specialist,” said Informa Group Chief Executive, Stephen A. Carter. “Its high quality, targeted business insights have built an enviable following across a range of B2B markets which, when combined with our own portfolio of specialist B2B brands, will create more opportunities to grow B2B audiences, expand into new B2B markets and create value for customers.”

Informa sees opportunities to accelerate the rollout of more Dive publications, launch new live and on-demand events to established Dive communities and develop additional specialist B2B services for clients, among other potential.

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Industry Dive will remain a standalone business at Informa within its Informa Tech division, which is also home to NetLine, the leading B2B content syndication and lead management platform Informa acquired in 2021. BrightTower advised Informa in this acquisition.

Gary Nugent, CEO of Informa Tech said, “Industry Dive is highly successful at building B2B audiences through world-class specialist content. We are very excited to bring its expertise, reach and colleagues onboard, as part of our expanding focus on B2B digital services and building known, engaged and marketable audience communities around our leading specialist brands.”

Informa acquires Industry Dive from Falfurrias Capital Partners, a Charlotte-based private equity firm that took a majority equity interest in the company in 2019. Falfurrias’s backing fueled expansion via five strategic acquisitions: NewsCred’s content marketing team and services, CFO.com, Mobile Payments Today, PharmaVOICE, and Ladders News.

“Over the past three years, the Falfurrias team has helped realize Industry Dive’s potential for continuing to scale our business into new markets, products and services,” Griffey said. “We have enjoyed tremendous success and growth with the Falfurrias team and thank them for setting us up for our next chapter with Informa.”

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