Centaur Media has bought Econsultancy for £50m, as the publisher looks to focus on digital and events channels.
Centaur, whose roster of titles include Marketing Week, New Media Age and The Lawyer, will use the purchase as a key part of its strategy to transform the group into a predominantly digital and events-led business.
The deal will see Econsultancy form part of Centaur’s business information division, and will work closely with its exhibitions division, with the intention of establishing Econsultancy as the “digital marketing expert” for the wider marketing community.
The acquisition marks Centaur’s biggerst-ever purchase, with an ‘initial consideration’ cost of £12m, with a ‘deferred consideration’ of up to £38m due in 2016, based on EBITDA performance for the year ending December 2015.
Formed in 1999, Econsultancy is a digital and events-led information provider to the global digital marketing and e-commerce community in the UK, with a growing presence in the USA, Middle East, Asia and Australia.
Econsultancy has approximately 110,000 registered users and 5,000 subscribers. In the financial year to 31 December 2011, it reported revenues of £6.6m, up 50 per cent year-on-year.
Much of Econsultancy can be accessed for free, but paid membership ranges between £295 and £3,495 a year.
“The earnings enhancing acquisition of Econsultancy provides us with an exciting opportunity to acquire a leading information brand in a high growth sector with global potential which fits well with Centaur products including Marketing Week and New Media Age,” said Centaur chief executive Geoff Wilmot.
“Econsultancy is highly complementary with Centaur and gives us a prominent position in the rapidly growing digital marketing sector with the opportunity to scale internationally. We see considerable potential for collaborative growth through leveraging our existing position in marketing and the development of high value, paid-for information products.”
Econsultancy’s CEO Ashley Friedlein and other key executives will remain with the firm.
Commenting on the deal, Friedlein said: “We’re thrilled to be combining all that Econsultancy has to offer with all that Centaur can offer to create a world-class proposition with amazing potential.”
Due to editorial overlap with Centaur’s New Media Age brand, the company intends to combine some of the activities within these brands under the management of Econsultancy. Full details on what this entails have not been disclosed.
