Informa TechTarget emerges as a B2B data giant

We’ve updated this article with news that the combination of Informa Tech and TechTarget is now official, after TechTarget shareholders approved the deal.

The combination of London-based media and data company Informa PLC’s Informa Tech and Massachusetts-based TechTarget became official Monday, creating a B2B data giant.

The proposed deal was announced early in 2024 and recently won approval from TechTarget shareholders.

Informa TechTarget will trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol TTGT. Informa PLC contributed $350 million in cash and the Informa Tech Digital Businesses into Informa TechTarget, in exchange for a 57% equity stake in the business. The $350 million in cash, or approximately $11.70 per outstanding TechTarget share, will be paid to existing TechTarget shareholders, who also retain a 43% equity stake in the combined company.  Gary Nugent, former CEO of Informa Tech, will serve as the Informa TechTarget CEO. 

Informa TechTarget will offer B2B marketers in the technology sector a broad range of products and capabilities. Perhaps most importantly, the company will be awash in first-party data from people researching business technology purchases across a sizable portfolio of web properties, analyst firms and digital platforms.

How did we get here?

Many of the B2B tech media brands that fall under Informa TechTarget are well-known to B2B marketers. Many of the brands go back decades and are no strangers to mergers and acquisitions.

Both Informa Tech and TechTarget used strategic acquisitions to build their portfolios of properties over the years.

The Informa Tech portfolio included media brands like Industry Dive, Information Week, Light Reading and AI Business; research firms Omdia and Canalys; and lead generation platform NetLine.

TechTarget’s portfolio included more than 150 websites under the TechTarget umbrella; research firm Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG); and virtual events and video platform BrightTALK.

As the value of audience data increased and B2B marketers in the tech sector, in particular, emphasized buyer intent data, both TechTarget and Informa Tech responded accordingly.

TechTarget offered a buyer intent platform called Priority Engine that gives marketers access to data about prospects actively researching tech solutions. Informa Tech created IIRIS, a B2B customer data platform that collates, standardizes and analyzes all of the first-party data generated by its portfolio.

Dig deeper: Why first-party data collection should be a priority for marketers

First-party takes centerstage

The impact of the deprecation of third-party cookies and the resulting thirst for first-party data is all over the this deal. One of the challenges many media organizations face when it comes to first-party data is scale: They can’t generate anything comparable to the volume of third-party data.

First-party data and scale were both mentioned in a statement by Stephen A. Carter, Group Chief Executive at Informa, when the deal was proposed earlier this year.

”Today we significantly strengthen Informa’s position in the growing B2B digital services market, creating a platform to serve B2B customers at scale digitally, as we already do in live and on-demand B2B events,” Carter said. ”Over the last three years, Informa has built a proprietary first-party data platform, IIRIS, and expanded our position in the B2B Digital Services market. Now, through a majority shareholding in US-listed TechTarget, we are positioning this business firmly where the customers and the value are.”

According to Informa, the total addressable market (TAM) of Informa TechTarget will expand customer reach by more than 10x. The new company will also be positioned to drive revenue and growth in new technology-enabled B2B markets.

TechTarget’s CEO sees scale, content as advantages

The combination of TechTarget and Informa Tech was about scale in a number of areas, said Mike Cotoia, the CEO of TechTarget when the deal was proposed.

The size of the permission-based audience will, of course, be larger, but so will the company’s geographic footprint if the deal is approved. A combined company could better serve global marketing teams at enterprise vendors, for example.

Cotoia said the combination provides scale for marketers trying to reach buyers in vertical markets.Business technology buyers increasingly sit in line-of-business (LOB) positions outside of centralized IT organizations. To reach these buyers, marketers need to work with media companies focused on vertical markets like healthcare, financial services and construction.

TechTarget acquired Xtelligent Healthcare Media in 2021 to break into the healthcare vertical. The addition of Informa Tech’s Industry Dive properties includes coverage for more than 30 additional verticals.

Like most B2B publishers, Cotoia said TechTarget serves two groups: The marketers who need to reach buyers and the tech buyers themselves.

The B2B marketers, he said, are interested in how they can activate intent data and find the fastest, most accurate path to the next deal. But they’re also trying to make their work easier.

“B2B marketers want to do more with less. They’ve added leads, they’ve added data and they’ve added martech and sales tech solutions. Now they want to simplify it,” Cotoia said. “And they want better conversions.”

On the buyers’ side of the equation, the combination of TechTarget and Informa Tech is about delivering high-quality content, according to Cotoia, because the way business technology buyers research and purchase changed significantly in the past decade.

“Today’s tech buyer is a younger buyer who relies less on sales reps and more on trusted content and experts,” Cotoia said. “We’re making sure we provide the impressive content they’re looking for when they’re evaluating options and making critical decisions for their tech stack.”

Cotoia expects content to remain central to the strategy going forward.

“We’re a publisher at heart, as we understand the value of leading with trusted, smart content because that’s what our readers and today’s tech buyer refer to when it comes to making decisions,” Cotoia said.

With an impressive collection of first-party data, vast content resources and an international footprint, a combined TechTarget and Informa Tech cuts an imposing figure on the B2B media playing field.

How will the competition respond? Cotoia has a prediction: More M&A activity.

“I think consolidation is really a trend that is going to keep going,” he said.

Dig deeper: DemandScience and Terminus merge, keeping data at the center of B2B marketing

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