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How I do it: Neil Vogel, Dotdash Meredith

How I do it: Neil Vogel, Dotdash Meredith

JEGI CLARITY’s 19th Annual Media & Tech Conference, focused on ‘Maintaining a Winning Mindset,’ brought together senior executives and investors from across the global media, marketing, information, and technology sectors.

At the conference, Colin Morrison, Founder, Publisher & Editor of Flashes & Flames and Advisory Board member at JEGI CLARITY, interviewed Neil Vogel, Chief Executive Officer of Dotdash Meredith, America’s largest digital and print publisher. The article below was written by Colin Morrison and originally published in Flashes & Flames. Click here to receive more content from Flash & Flames.

Background

Neil Vogel is the Chief Executive Officer of Dotdash Meredith, the largest digital and print publisher in the US, whose 40+ brands include People, Better Homes& Gardens, Verywell, Food & Wine, The Spruce, Allrecipes, Byrdie, Real Simple, Investopedia, and Southern Living.

The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of IAC, Barry Diller’s listed holding company whose “financially disciplined opportunism” has been responsible for the success of many digital brands including Vimeo, Expedia, TripAdvisor, Live Nation, Match Group, and Angi.

Prior to the $2.7bn acquisition of Meredith Corp in 2021, Vogel had been CEO of Dotdash and led its transformation from a general information website (About.com) to a portfolio of high-performing lifestyle verticals. In 2020, it had made $66mn EBITDA on revenue of $214mn, growth of 65% and 27% respectively. Its operations were characterized by: “Best content, fastest sites, and fewer, better ads”.

The all-digital publisher’s decision to acquire the troubled 120-year-old, print-centric Meredith surprised many. But Vogel had identified the value of its long-established magazine brands; the market-leading product licensing, generating an estimated $100mn of annual profit, principally from Better Homes & Gardens branded products in Walmart; and the constraints that had been forced on Meredith by its ill-fated 2017 acquisition of Time Inc.

But the CEO has admitted last year was a tough start for the “new” company: “These mergers are hard, and this was really hard and slow. In a good market, nobody sees your mistakes. In a bad market, everyone sees every mistake.”

Dotdash Meredith now claims some 170mn online consumers in the US each month (76% of all adults and 90% of women). That makes it a top 10 internet operator alongside Disney, Warner Media, Paramount and Comcast/NBC – and larger than Hearst and Condé Nast combined. Its largest sectors are: Food (Allrecipes, Food & Wine), Entertainment (People), Home (Better Homes & Gardens, Southern Living) and Health (Verywell). Its pro forma revenue for 2022 was $2.3bn, 60% from ads, 20% from eCommerce and 13% licensing. For Q4, digital accounted for 54% of revenue and 85% of profit, emphasizing the digitalization of the Meredith portfolio.

Before joining IAC / Dotdash in 2013, Vogel was Founder and CEO of Recognition Media, a producer of award shows including the Webby Awards and the Telly Awards. Previously, he had been an executive at digital content and marketing company Alloy, and an investment banker. He had graduated in finance from the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania.

How did you get into media?

When I realized I was not going to be the starting shooting guard for the Philadelphia 76ers, I had to take a different course. I was an investment banker for a number of years. I actually very much enjoyed it, but I found myself wanting to be a client, not one of my bosses. I joined a very early internet company called Alloy. They ended up going private and selling it off and we had a pretty good run.

Then I left and got into more nuts and bolts media businesses. I started a company, Recognition Media, that rolled-up media and advertising award shows which we eventually sold to private equity. Then I joined a venture capital firm FirstMark Capital as an entrepreneur in residence. But I was a terrible investor. It’s not my temperament or my skillset.

How did you come to join IAC?

I knew the guys at IAC, which now owns Dotdash Meredith. At the time, they had just bought About.com from the New York Times.
That was probably one of the worst scaled internet businesses in history. They called me to see if I knew anyone who could run it, and I said ‘Well, wait, that looks interesting,’ and I persuaded them to let me do it. About.com was a general information website, much like an old fashioned service magazine publisher. But it was one brand, a lot of content, and the vast majority of the content was pretty bad. But it still had 20-30mn users a month and I thought we could do something with it.

The one thing I couldn’t understand was that there were still advertisers – companies like Microsoft and Carnival Cruises – paying us exorbitant amounts of money to advertise on a platform where the ads really didn’t work that well. The content was not presented in a great way. But, because my background was not publishing but more like banking and math, I came to realize that our users were at the very bottom of their decision funnels (whether they were ready to solve a problem or make a purchase) and so that was a very good place for some advertisers. When people are searching “What do I bring on my cruise?” that’s a good place for, say, Carnival Cruises to be.”

With that bit of knowledge, I went to Barry Diller. For those who know him, you’ll know that I did not have the easiest conversation when I said: “This thing that we bought is totally wrong. We’re going to throw out almost two-thirds of the content and we’re going to launch a whole bunch of brands to compete against household brands that you’ve known for a hundred years – on the internet, which seems like a bad place for publishers.” His response was: “Well, this hasn’t been working for so long. It’s about time. You guys have an idea that’s worthwhile doing.”

So we took About.com, broke it up and launched a whole bunch of sites including Verywell Health and The Spruce in Home. We almost instantly had very big success, simply because we had looked at the internet differently. We said we’re going to make fast sites, every bit of content we make is going to be amazing, we’re going to have fewer ads so they perform better and don’t annoy consumers, and it’s going to work. We immediately turned the business round and made some acquisitions. We bought Brides from Condé Nast, Byrdie (a beauty site) from an entrepreneur, and some food sites. Suddenly, we went from 30mn users a month to more than 100mn.

Dotdash went from 60 or $70mn in revenue to almost $300mn. We went from losing money to close to $100m EBITDA. We realized that we had become very, very good at publishing on the internet.

Why did you acquire Meredith?

Dotdash had achieved this rapid growth at a time when everybody thought publishing was broken. Publishing is not broken, bad publishing models are broken. But the thing that we didn’t have was major brands. While The Spruce grew to be the biggest home site on the internet, bigger than Real Simple, Good Housekeeping and Better Homes & Gardens, nobody really knew what it was.

IAC really believes in the power and value of major brands so we persuaded it to acquire Meredith Corp for $2.7bn.

Our whole thesis was that this historic business had structural issues that caused it to be very cash constrained and not that able to invest in growth. We thought that, if we could take what we knew digitally and apply it to these incredible brands – People, Better Homes & Gardens, Travel and Leisure, Real Simple, Food & Wine, Entertainment Weekly – we could do to them what we had done to the brands we had re-invented from About.com.

We thought we could have tremendous success and we still feel that way. We happened to buy at a relatively tough time for the ad market. But, long term, that doesn’t matter. We’re now the biggest digital and print publisher in America, probably in the world. We have a whole bunch of print assets too, that we actually like and they fit as part of the mix. We’re by far the biggest publisher online. We like our brands and our scale. Our content really performs and, though the integration has been hard, we’re getting there.

The opportunity to acquire Meredith arose essentially because of its problems with the purchase of Time Inc six years ago. Had Dotdash / IAC also tried to acquire Time Inc back in 2017?

When Meredith bought Time Inc, we were actually too small to do anything. But we forced ourselves into the room to see what we could learn. Meredith had made a choice to double down on print: one print publisher was buying another print publisher and hoping to wring more money out of print.

Some of our people jokingly called it “print on print violence”, and it didn’t work. I don’t really have an opinion on what happened before we got there, but I think the results speak for themselves. We paid significantly less than what the combination of Meredith+Time Inc would have been worth at the time they did it.

For us, though, it certainly wasn’t about buying either print or digital; it was about buying brands. What we saw in Meredith was a company with some very talented people but which was a dividend-driven, essentially a family-controlled business, not really exposed to the latest thinking. We’d just been through this exercise with the About.com assets plus the seven or eight brands we had bought. We knew exactly what to do with these legendary Meredith brands, to fix them on TikTok, on Instagram and – more importantly – on the web.

We also had a very good idea of what to do with print because you just have to make magazines that people are willing to pay for, that are high quality – and that will work. We probably had a touch of irrational arrogance because of our previous success. If we get this right, I think we can be a category-defining publisher for where media’s going.

How did People – the biggest and most profitable Meredith brand – fit your strategy?

We’ve always said – and I think it’s something unique to us – that we’ve always stuck to our knitting and said we are going to be a service publisher. That means health, finance, home, food, tech, travel. We are never going to do news, we’re never going to do politics, we’re never going to do User Generated Content. I mean, we do it in recipes but that doesn’t count. That’s not what we do. Nothing we produce puts you in a bad mood or gives advertisers concern. You’re never going to have an opinion piece. No one stops me on the street and yells at me because maybe they didn’t like a recipe on Food & Wine!

Would you really have bought People if it had not been part of Meredith?

Maybe. We’d never said we wouldn’t buy entertainment, but it’s a little bit different than everything else we do. We like things that are ‘down funnel’ intent. We had to take a very hard look at People before we bought it because it was such a meaningful part of the portfolio. What we found was that, with the entertainment type businesses, you must have readership scale otherwise the audiences are simply worthless to advertisers. But that’s what we have. People is 4x bigger than the next biggest entertainment sites, the Daily Mail and TMZ.

We basically knew it had the scale and that – if we did a good job – there was an intent-based kernel in there, because some 35% of the traffic comes from search. Our ad sellers were very excited to have People as part of a sales package because it sprinkles stardust on the portfolio. If you’re talking to a soup company, allowing them to do something at the Academy Awards can be very helpful. So, we bought People with our eyes open. It’s actually probably been our fastest-growing audience. Super-interestingly, the People team came up with the definition of their brand: “People means ordinary people doing extraordinary things and extraordinary people doing ordinary things.”

What we have ensured is that the print, social media and web content is distinct because the audiences are. In print, you can put the Queen on the cover and write a million stories about Julia Roberts and they do great. On the internet, it’s Kim Kardashian and what was on TV last night. If you try and put George Clooney on TikTok, no one even knows who he is. But the thread is quality journalism for entertainment, which means nothing salacious, no rumors, no gossip. Just a different kind of person for a different kind of audience. We’ve spent the last year transitioning, which has been fairly brutal, trying to do that in all of our brands and understanding what people want. Food & Wine, the print magazine is about experiences. You want to read it while you’re watching TV or whatever. The internet is recipes and social is, “How do you make a Popsicle explode?”

Once you understand that and realize you can do this all from the same brand voice, it gives you super-freedom.

We have these amazing editors from Meredith who had felt restricted in what they were able to do. They are now just bursting with ideas. It’s been a real education for us, learning from them. We are now at the point where all of the brands with print (six of them) have ‘brand editor-in-chiefs’ responsible for the brand mission. They have no operating control over digital, but the effectiveness of this brand-led approach has been a revelation.

How much of Dotdash Meredith is now print?

It’s a much bigger share of revenue than of profit because of the nature of print. We’ve said publicly that, in Q4 last year, 54% of the revenue and 85% of EBITDA profit was from digital. We’ll print probably half as many magazines next year as we did last year but the profitability is going to look pretty much the same. We’re in a really nice cadence where both the ad business and subscriptions on print are pretty good.

We invested heavily in the print properties we kept, so we raised news stand and subscription prices by about 20%. That seems to have all been accepted. We’re excited about it because there’s still a magic in print brands. I’ve been meeting these CMOs and they still love print and they have a lot of data that says it’s still very effective. It’s just you have to realize it’s not for everybody. It’s not going to be a growth engine, but it’s still a really nice contribution business.

What are your principal digital revenue streams?

Advertising is our biggest piece of business and the ad market’s been fairly rough because there’s so much uncertainty. It’s been a challenging environment.

However, a large – and probably the fastest growing – piece of our business is transactional, which is effectively like a guides ratings reviews business. Readers trust Food & Wine for their recipes so they trust them also to tell them which blender to buy. We have 53 test kitchens in Birmingham, Alabama and 100,000+ square feet of product testing space in Des Moines, Iowa. We do comprehensive consumer report-style user tests across everything from throwing luggage off a loading dock to figuring out what is the best blender for a small kitchen. That’s been a real bright spot.

It’s a great business to be in. The people who do the tests and reviews are deliberately independent of any economic arrangements we make with the brands. If we say we have the best brands in the world and they’re really trusted, we should absolutely be able to recommend luggage on Travel and Leisure and blenders on Food & Wine, and we should also be able to tell our readers how they can buy the dress that Jennifer Aniston wore last night in People.

This is a very big and growing business for us digitally. We also have a large licensing business, but the only reason it works is because people love the content. We spend heavily on content and, again, it’s one of those things we tell our people: “Don’t worry about the money, make amazing things, build great audiences, and the revenue will come.” There’s obviously a lot of us who do worry about the costs and revenue, but not our people making the content.

Product licensing was one of the standout, best-in-class successes of Meredith. For more than 20 years, it had been way ahead of its larger rivals in putting magazine brands on licensed product. Is this long term revenue stream now a game changer for you?

We have a very big, longterm partnership with Walmart which sells everything from candles to sheets under the Better Homes & Gardens brand. These products are bestsellers. We love this licensing because it’s great business but also because it’s brand validation. If your brand can carry off that many consumer product sales and have that much consumer trust at Walmart, it’s pretty incredible.

We are in the process of expanding this licensing with many of our other brands, including Southern Living and Brides, for the long term. It’s a great way to monetize our brands.

The next time you are in Walmart, look at Better Homes & Gardens products. It’s an amazing range of bestsellers. We now give everyone on the editorial team at Better Homes & Gardens a $500 quarterly allowance to buy whatever they want from “their” range at Walmart.

What about subscriptions?

We have 11mn print magazine subscribers, but that’s a different business. We have not done subscriptions in any material way across our other properties. We’ve obviously thought a lot about this. But, in order to be a successful subscription product, you generally have to have daily use and many or most of our properties are not that. You need them when you need them and you don’t when you don’t. Also, our whole business is built on scale and subscriptions would tend to limit the audiences.

If consumers are going to pay for things, it generally has to be part of a bundle or part of something. In our sectors, we have made the decision not to be subscription-driven. Our primary revenue is going to be advertising, sponsorship, and eCommerce. But we’re still learning and some of the Meredith people have made a strong case for is experiments because we do have 12mn subscribers who are willing to pay for content.

How important are podcasts?

We do a few. Southern Living has a very big podcast and so does our Verywell Health brand. We probably have 15-20 podcasts across the company, and two or three are large. We don’t do podcasts just to do them. But take the “Biscuits and Jam” one for Southern Living, Sid Evans, the Editor-in-Chief, takes all kinds of southern musicians and just talks about Southern culture. It’s an amazing podcast and does very well. We also have a very big mental health podcast. It’s early days but podcasts are interesting.

How will AI impact your company?

We could do five hours on this! I think there’s been lots of threats to our business in the 10 years we’ve been here. But this is the first thing that could be truly existential if not done correctly and properly. The thing to keep your eye on, as a publisher, is it’s an incredible tool. It’s the greatest analytics tool ever and it’s helping us. We’ll never use it to write content, but it’s helping us figure out what to make in a way that is mind-blowing.

The part of it that no one really knows what’s going to happen (and Barry Diller, has been fairly outspoken on some of these issues) is that the world has been conditioned to use the search bar to get information. People’s behavior can change or not change, but I think that’s where we are for now. Google dominates search so what it does with the search results is going to be the single thing that affects American consumer businesses more than anything else going. Because that is what’s going to happen. If AI disrupts that process in some way, our business is going to change. No matter who you are, because Google is a material part of the traffic.

What’s your vision for Dotdash Meredith in, say, five years?

I’ll be working for the robots! I think we’re in a really interesting place. We’re the biggest publisher in terms of scale. I’m biased but I believe we also have the very best brands in the world. We’re very good at the new-ish channels and our ads perform incredibly well because very simply… If you put three ads on the page instead of six, they do way better. We have a chance to redefine what we’re doing in terms of share of revenue and share of voice. Because we have platform-level scale, we’re now competing with Meta and we’re competing with CTV and we’re competing with all these other channels. If we can do all of this in a brand-safe environment and guarantee that the ads perform, I believe we have a chance to really redefine what a publisher is.

We’re very good at technology. But we make content that people love and we make it accessible and we aggregate these great audiences and connect them to advertiser-vendors. This is a business that has existed for a hundred years. Better Homes & Gardens is 101 years old now. It’s not brain surgery, it’s “just” execution but it’s difficult. It’s hard. But we put in the work and I like our chances.

For more information about our conference please click here.

Data-Driven Growth in the Media, Information, and Event Industry

Data-Driven Growth in the Media, Information, and Event Industry

This report was produced in partnership with H2K Labs. H2K Labs empowers media, events, and digital information companies to thrive in a rapidly evolving market. For more information, please visit www.h2klabs.com.

Since data is the lifeblood of businesses in the media, information, and event industry and the service providers who support them, we surveyed industry leaders about their challenges and usage of data to drive profitable revenue growth. The study, conducted in April and May 2023, collected data from over 100 executives of the largest and leading companies covering all facets of B2B and B2C media, information, event, and marketing service providers. We also included in the survey a selection of investors, private equity, and venture capital firms to gain their perspectives and views on this industry. Since not all questions were appropriate for each audience, not all respondents were asked every question. Unless otherwise specified, all results in this study are among leaders at media, information, and event companies.

Inside the Winning Mindset

Inside the Winning Mindset

Building MiQ, the Leading Global Programmatic Media Partner

JEGI CLARITY’s 19th Annual Media & Tech Conference focused on ‘Maintaining a Winning Mindset,’ brought together senior executives and investors from across the global media, marketing, information, and technology sectors.

At the conference, Marcus Anselm, a Partner from JEGI CLARITY’s London office, interviewed Gurman Hundal, CEO & Founder of MiQ, a leading programmatic media partner to the world’s largest brands and agencies.

In H2 2022, MiQ received an investment from private equity firm, Bridgepoint, which valued the company at nearly $1Bn, generating a 6.1x return for its previous investor ECI Partners. JEGI CLARITY had the pleasure of advising Bridgepoint on the transaction. During their fireside chat, Marcus asked Gurman about the journey he had been on since the business was co-founded in 2010 and its transformation into the major global player it is today. Gurman shared his views on topics ranging from how the business started out and how to build the best relationship with private equity firms to future trends in the AdTech space. We’ve picked just a few highlights from the thought-provoking session.

From ‘bootstrap‘ beginnings to private equity funding

Gurman and the Co-Founder & Global Chief Growth Officer of MiQ, Lee Puri, started the company in the UK without any external funding, investing $20,000 each at its genesis. Within a few months they had a revenue of $100K and $20,000 in EBIT which they reinvested to grow the business. Early challenges included building a business in South India to provide the right technical expertise for their service and breaking into the US market.

Up until that point, growth had been entirely organic, but it was an offer to buy the business that Gurman and Lee walked away from in 2016 that led to them to think about partnering with a PE firm. It challenged the misconception they had previously held about what it would be like, and the value that an investor could bring to them. When asked about the advice he would give both to an agency thinking about bringing in a PE partner, Gurman advocated spending a lot of time getting to know one another, ensuring the culture is right. From the PE firm’s point of view, he advised that it was vital to take the time to understand the complexities of the fast-moving AdTech industry. For agencies, he advised that a good PE partner “should be an extension of your leadership team, you should want to pick up the phone to them.”

The power of retention – clients and talent

In the face of a talent shortage, Marcus asked how they keep retention rates well above 80% at MiQ. Gurman explained that two main areas of focus for the business were retention of clients and retention of talent. At the start of the pandemic they made a promise not to fire or furlough any employees. They worked hard to listen to what their employees wanted and tracked employee engagement religiously. Gurman stated that he and Lee have been “relentless about the people experience. At the end of the day as Founders that’s our legacy – how people felt when they worked at MiQ, that’s what we care about the most. Ultimately, I believe if you care about that the most, you tend to have a good business.”

Next stage for growth

The conversation then turned to growth for MiQ and current market sentiment. Gurman commented that although the market was still volatile, programmatic advertising, because of its flexible and responsive nature, was well positioned. Brands, as ever, are interested in how they are reaching users, they want to follow the ‘eyeballs’ and behavior. Gurman predicted the continued rise of digital at home among other platforms and there was real interest in how opportunities in home game consoles might develop as well as branding in games.

In response to Marcus’ question about what is next for MiQ, Gurman said he believed there was still more opportunity for organic growth – which could lead to them doubling the size of the business. He also talked about their new M&A capability, which completed its first deal earlier this year and will provide MiQ going forward with “the muscle to be a strategic buyer in the AdTech space.”

For more information about our conference please click here.

Face-To-Face Events Reinvigorated

Face-to-Face Events Reinvigorated

The events industry has bounced back faster than expected, its value has been proven and even strengthened by Covid. Investors are jumping back in to access deal opportunities across the size spectrum in the ecosystem.

Renewed importance of a diverse industry

Three years ago, Covid brought the world to a complete halt and the Face-to-Face (F2F) industry, be it exhibitions, tradeshows, conferences, 1-2-1s, experiential events, or corporate events, was one of the most affected sectors. Today, the F2F industry is seeing renewed importance as attendees are flocking back to all forms of events with irrefutable energy and motivation.

Event participants have a heightened appreciation for the value and unique advantages of meeting F2F in environments that foster networking, building new relationships, collaboration, and a more focused learning environment. Net Promoter Scores (NPS) evidence this. Pre-pandemic, industry benchmarks put average visitor NPS in the +5 to +7 range, with average exhibitor NPS being negative. Explori reported a post-Covid increase of 20 points in the NPS average in 2021 as F2F resumed. With these higher levels of engagement and satisfaction among attendees, sponsors and exhibitors are also reaping the benefits and strengthening their commitment to the category. A Stax survey of 196 sponsors of corporate events showed an uplift of 29% in perceived value of events from 2019 to 2023, with net sentiment increasing from slightly positive to positive. More broadly, the shift to remote and hybrid work has created an environment where F2F is significantly more valuable now for selling, marketing, and networking as well as for corporate team building, strategy, engagement, and culture. These positive views are here to stay.

Full recovery of market size

The global exhibition organizing market has traditionally grown ahead of GDP, for example, growing at 5% annually from 2017 to 2019 when it reached a total value of $29B. But Covid halted this growth dramatically in its tracks, with the market shrinking by 69% to $10B in 2021.

With Covid re-proving and even enhancing the value of proximity and immersion brought by F2F, near-full recovery is forecast in 2023. Growth is established at or above pre-pandemic levels and the industry will look much the same. F2F remains the core, now enhanced by the accelerated development of adjacent digital products and data during Covid, providing potential for deeper reach into the communities served by event brands.

Beyond exhibitions, the recovery and growth rates of other segments of F2F such as meetings & incentives and delegate-focused events are mirroring or even outperforming the sector. In addition to organizers, service providers to the industry such as contractors and other suppliers are also benefiting strongly from the return and can expect continuing growth.

This bounce-back has not been universal, however. Asia has been restrained by China’s zero-Covid policy, but that market has now reopened. Domestic growth in China will continue, but organizers will look at other trade flows for event participation. Smaller, weaker events are not returning, but we are seeing a substantial increase in event launch activity as organizers target emerging sectors, mostly with a tech focus.

The rationalization of virtual

The pandemic highlighted the analog nature of the industry, with only 2% of digital revenue in 2019. The emergency dash to digital brought some success and innovation, but limited monetization. Efforts were mostly failures, most of the stopgap efforts were not repeated.

While digital technology allowed us to stay connected and continue to do business during difficult times, we now have the proof-point that virtual events cannot fully replace the real human connection that helps brands build visibility and trust. Only a small set of events such as some delivering training and educational content have remained exclusively online now that it is possible to meet in person again.

Coming out of the pandemic, we are seeing the number of virtual platforms decreasing. When Covid hit many event organizers scrambled to shift their in-person offerings to virtual. Now we are seeing rationalized offerings that augment F2F, extend engagement to 365, and provide opportunities for performance-based marketing, broader content engagement, data collections, and analytics. Digital revenues will not expand as rapidly as predicted in the pandemic, but we expect them to grow at double-digit CAGR to contribute over $1B by 2024, substantially up from the pre-Covid levels of c.$650M. Much of this will be driven by the monetization potential of standalone offerings that extend F2F exhibitions (e.g., 365 year-round digital services, marketplaces, newsletters) being realized.

Transformation to community and customer value

Although events have proven value standing alone, winning organizers had already embarked on a journey of transformation before the pandemic, recognizing the need and opportunity to give customers greater value. Informa’s IIRIS data strategy is a major investment in customer closeness. Italian Exhibition Group announced its community catalyst strategy, others are taking similar initiatives .

We also see other changes to business models, mostly driven by acquisition. Emerald’s acquisition of Bulletin complements its NY gift fair and makes a serious entry to marketplaces. Organizers Clarion, Hyve, and Tarsus have all acquired businesses that organize one-to-one meetings, seeking to spread that competence across their portfolios. Overall, the industry is evolving towards greater use of data and technological integration, allowing it to increase market reach and audience involvement.

Transactions are back

With F2F back on track to pre-pandemic levels and the industry stronger, investor confidence has also returned. This is shown by the slew of major and some smaller deals in 2023, proving that the industry is both attractive and investable.

The industry is seeing a return of M&A activity and relatively strong transaction multiples. North America continues to lead the way with a strong market recovery post-Covid and a broad set of actionable opportunities. In 2020, North America saw 88 event-related transactions, followed by 94 in 2021 and 106 in 2022. Europe has also recovered well and has seen a similar M&A pattern with 90 event related transactions in 2020, followed by 98 in 2021 and 96 in 2022. M&A activity in the APAC region remains subdued.

In addition to mainstream traditional events that have rebounded, buyers are looking to acquire “tip of spear” and other innovative business models which enable higher sales conversion and more efficient buyer engagement. These include smaller curated events that occur throughout the year such as 1-2-1 and hosted-buyer events, content-rich conferences delivering critical information to their communities, and focused knowledge-sharing businesses, such as peer-to-peer networks. Investors have the strongest appetite for growing, resilient, global verticals such as healthcare and technology. Given the current macro-economic backdrop they are less focused on cyclical markets such as construction and retail, although software and tech that is driving productivity in any market is a hot topic.

At the end of 2022, the F2F industry saw notable activity. JEGI CLARITY was the sell-side advisor on three event-related transactions in Q4 2022: LRP Media Group’s sale of its HR Tech and Ed Tech B2B event and digital media portfolios to Arc, backed by investment funds managed by EagleTree Capital; e.Republic, a media, research, data and events company, sale to Leeds Equity Partners; and the investment in WTWH media, an integrated B2B media company that includes 12 events, by Mountaingate Capital.

Fast forward to March 2023, the industry saw three large and transformative acquisition announcements. Informa plans to acquire Tarsus, operator of 160+ B2B event brands, for $940M. Less than a week later, Blackstone, a fund focused on events and travel recovery, announced it has entered into a definite agreement to acquire meetings, events, and hospitality tech provider Cvent for $4.6B. Shortly after, Providence Equity Partners, partnering with Searchlight Capital Partners announced that they had made an offer to acquire Hyve Group, a U.K. event organizer for $579M, approximately 20.3x EBITDA for FY22.

Stax has been equally busy over the past 12 months with six sell-side and buy-side commercial due diligences across exhibitions, conferences, and experiential, as well as its other strategy and transformation work in F2F.

Select deals in F2F

We will also see a wide range of investment opportunities in the broader ecosystem beyond event organizing. Service providers that support organizers are now in a stronger position than pre-Covid. Building from their downsized bases, these providers are enjoying strong growth in line with the faster than anticipated industry bounce-back. With some scarcity of supply, many players are able to command higher prices from customers and improve margins.

The $4.6B Cvent investment underpins the attractiveness of technology players that support meeting and event organizers as well as their participants. In venues, while there is overcapacity in some parts of the world, the value or specialized, flexible pace is highlighted by Convene’s investment in etc.venues.

Further investment ahead

With continuing positive fundamentals, we can expect to see more transactions throughout the ecosystem. Private equity investors such as Blackstone, Providence, Charterhouse, EagleTree, and others have made strong returns repeatedly across a number of deals. They will be joined by others attracted by the quality of the industry’s fundamentals and its recovery.

Global Digital Services Market: The Investment Opportunity

Global Digital Services Market
The Investment Opportunity

Overview

JEGI CLARITY has been a prominent player in the Marketing, Content and Digital Services sectors for over three decades. During this time, we have witnessed significant changes in the industry, none more so than what we are experiencing in the Global Customer Experience market today.

As our report indicates there are powerful tailwinds driving structural demand in the digital services ecosystem as companies and brands redefine and enhance their online propositions. The market is now estimated to be worth over $100 billion in the US and UK alone and showing strong growth despite broader market conditions. 

As a consequence, there has been a sharpened focus from the Private Equity community over recent years attracted by the high single-digit, low double-digit money multiple returns that  their peers have achieved. As the wider M&A market starts to warm up, we anticipate several PE-backed platforms will be in play over the next 12 to 24 months driving further investment into and consolidation of a highly fragmented industry.

Larger strategic players, such as Accenture Song, Wipro, and WPP, are also actively looking to add to their capabilities by consciously building integrated offerings on a global scale.

Whether you are a corporate looking to ramp up investment or a Private Equity firm seeking to participate in this market opportunity, we would be delighted to share our comprehensive report and provide you with a more detailed account of the sector. Contact us at globaldigitalmarket@jegiclarity-emea.com.

PE sets sights on Research, Insights and Analytics sector

PE sets sights on Research, Insights and Analytics sector

Author: San Datta, Partner, EMEA

The last week has seen both Qualtrics and Momentive, both large and global publicly-listed CX businesses in the research, insights and analytics sector, receive buyout offers from Silver Lake and Symphony Technology Group, respectively, to go private. Following on the heels of Advent International’s acquisition of NielsenIQ in 2021 and subsequent merger with GfK in 2022, and Bain Capital’s acquisition of Kantar back in December 2019 this firmly places many of the largest players in the sector in the hands of financial sponsors.

At one level, these two latest deals look opportunistic. Headline revenue multiples of 7.5x for Qualtrics (EV of $12.5Bn) and 3x for Momentive (EV of $1.5Bn) compare very favorably with the 14x revenue which Thomas Bravo paid for Medallia in a $6.4Bn transaction announced 2 years ago in a much more favorable SaaS valuation market. And even though both were at a significant premium to their share price just before acquisition (73% for Qualtrics and 46% for Momentive), the offers are at a material discount to where both businesses were trading just twelve months ago (as well as a material discount to Zendesk’s failed $4.1Bn acquisition of Momentive a year ago) and even further from their share price peaks.

To be fair, although underlying revenue growth at both businesses remains strong at 12-15% on a three year forward basis, both businesses have not been immune to the broader woes afflicting the tech sector. Both businesses have restructured and reduced their workforces by 5-10% through Q4 2022 and Q1 2023; both are facing higher customer acquisition costs; and both are seeing a near-term slow-down in revenue growth across several customer or solution segments.

With that in mind, why is this sector potentially at the vanguard of a technology and software M&A bounce-back? 

The answer is the market opportunity. However you define the market and its sub-segments, be it customer experience, experience management, consumer insights or simply ResTech, it is a huge and growing market. Customer and experience management alone is an addressable market of over $60Bn. The broader research, insights and analytics market is estimated at over $125Bn, and some of these markets are growing annually at double-digit percentage growth rates. Why? Simply put, there is a real and growing need for corporates and brands to have a rich, comprehensive and real-time understanding of what their consumers are thinking, how they’re behaving and how best to engage with them. Whether that is to drive sales, launch new products or enhance customer loyalty which are just some of the solutions offered by players in this space.

Even more interestingly, this market is being increasingly viewed as a key “tip-of-the-spear” entry point to unlock share of wallet for the broader digital marketing and transformation sectors. Ultimately, understanding consumer behavior and needs is critical to developing best-in-class front-end digital marketing services, whether that’s designing brand strategy, creative concepts, user experience or the customer journey. This broader market is over $500Bn and as private equity owners think about the eventual exit opportunities, there is a whole world of players such as Accenture, Cognizant or IBM for whom this capability is becoming an increasingly important part of their broader service offerings.

From an investment perspective, if you’re looking for exposure to this sector, there are a number of private platforms available like Qualtrics and Momentive, the parent company of Survey Monkey, with large enterprise clients such as Uber, P&G, Coca-Cola and Pfizer. The playing field is highly fragmented with many smaller tech vendors seeking to scale at an enterprise level with strong product offerings which are ripe for consolidation. There are also many mid-tier ResTech platforms like Suzy, Quantilope, Prodege and Zappi which are backed by private equity sponsors who will ultimately sell or combine in the coming years. This provides a large and real investment opportunity across this space which can accelerate the organic growth, embed client relationships, unlock new revenue streams, open new client opportunities, and deepen their competitive moat.

Will it all be smooth sailing for these companies? Almost certainly not. Many of the larger tech vendors are well placed to build out product offerings in this sector, leveraging existing customer relationships and data capabilities. Similarly, businesses with deep tech and advanced AI/ ML capabilities may disrupt on their front-end data aggregation and analytic capability. And there’s a real possibility that clients start to demand more and more of an advisory layer on top of these solutions, which may limit their ability to scale as quickly and could eat into their higher software margins.

However, from where we sit today, with the capital that the firms like Silver Lake bring to the party, they’ve got everything to play for, and we see the market as one of real opportunity in the year ahead. 

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The Metaverse…a game changer for M&A?

The Metaverse…a game changer for M&A?

As The Metaverse adoption continues apace, there will be an unprecedented wall of expertise required to service demand

Author: Jonathan Davis, Partner, EMEA

For all the recent publicity, “The Metaverse” remains a relatively opaque concept. Perhaps the simplest way to think about it is as the potential cyberspace functionality provided by Web 3.0 (the name that signifies the third generation of the Internet).

Based upon principles of decentralization, open protocols, greater user interaction and enhanced levels of certified digital ownership, Web 3.0 leans heavily into technologies such as Blockchain (digitally distributed, decentralized data ledgers), smart contracts and digital financial instruments (such as crypto-currencies and NFTs).

These foundational technologies offer end-users greater rights and participation in financial transactions, more interactive retail, gaming and entertainment experiences, and social media platforms that blend virtual and physical environments in a more intuitive and seamless way. The ecosystem that is the nexus of these experiences is increasingly referred to as “The Metaverse”. 

Though still nascent, far from cohesive and with some of its impacts possibly over-stated, The Metaverse and Web 3.0 could still be a significant inflection point in internet utility, enabling disruptive new online business models.

Inflection point in internet utility or “just” a massive M&A market? 

The question of whether The Metaverse will represent an inflection point in internet utility is up for debate. Many major retailers and brands are trying to size up the opportunities Web 3.0 affords and how to respond to them strategically; creating new modes of customer engagement, partnering with gaming and entertainment companies to create offerings in potential new virtual market-places, which require new marketing and advertising tech capabilities.

Inflection point or not, the market is already material and attracting significant investment. According to a recent study by Precedence Research, the size of this market could be in the region of $1.3tn by 2030.¹

¹Source: Precedence Research, September 2022  

If the prospect of The Metaverse is bringing the worlds of entertainment, gaming and retail into a new paradigm, then 3D/CGI content creation will be a serious enabler. Companies whose tech platforms and pipelines incorporate these capabilities will increasingly be of interest to brands, entertainment and games companies while also rapidly becoming a significant driver of competition and differentiation amongst agencies, VFX and CGI studios.

Although the necessary standardization required to make 3D interoperable across the web isn’t available yet, providers of game engine software, real-time rendering, IT hardware and cloud computing are all vying to establish a plan for Metaverse 3D graphics ubiquity. One example of this is the Khronos Group (a consortium of leading companies in the world of 3D graphics) with members such as AMD, Epic Games, Autodesk, Meta and Microsoft among many others and who’s motto is “Render Everything Everywhere”.

Significant investment followed by a prolonged period of M&A

Assuming that Metaverse adoption continues apace, there will be an unprecedented wall of expertise required to service demand. Brands, entertainment companies as well as advertisers all need to have the ability to create and deploy content in Web 3.0.

Skills in virtual world creation will have increasing value in the supply chain, making tech-focused creative companies a prime target for acquisition and portfolio growth. To that end, services companies such as Accenture, WPP and DEPT are all placing significant bets on its success.  

Accenture has already launched Metaverse Continuum Group, an 800 person (and growing) strong division helping clients in areas such as extended reality, blockchain, digital twins and edge computing.   

The next generation of the internet is unfolding and will drive a new wave of digital transformation far greater than what we’ve seen to date, transforming the way we all live and work.

Paul Daughtery, Group CEO of Technology and CTO of Accenture 

WPP’s specialist creative content production company, The Metaverse Foundry, through Hogarth, develops brand experiences in The Metaverse delivered by a global team of over 700. In parallel they announced a technology partnership with Epic Games, training employees in technologies such as Unreal Engine for 3D creation and virtual production.  

Our clients are already seizing the opportunities to connect with their customers presented by The Metaverse, and seeking partners who can bring experiences to life in the most creative and compelling ways.

Mark Read, CEO of WPP

Global Digital Services group DEPT, who JEGI CLARITY raised capital for from Carlyle Group in 2020, launched their 300-person Web3/DEPT offering dedicated to The Metaverse, blockchain technology and NFT services, with a stated intention to derive 20% of group revenues and growing divisional headcount to 1,200 people by 2025.  

With all this investment there is no doubt that acquisitions will follow, and we are already witnessing the start of a wave of M&A, with TechMonitor estimating well over $100bn of related M&A in the last two years alone: 

  • Match Group paid $1.7bn for Hyperconnect, a South Korean social discovery and video tech company with whom it is developing “Single Town” a virtual space where singles can meet.
  • Unity Technology acquired Weta Digital’s technology division (engineering division, artist pipeline and tools) for $1.6bn, to enable “a new generation of creators to build, transform, and distribute stunning RT3D content.”
  • Epic Games raised $2 billion for Metaverse Endeavor from Sony Group Corporation and Kirkbi (family behind LEGO) in a deal that values the Fortnite creator at $31.5bn,to help fund the kid-focused metaverse content in partnership with LEGO.
  • Tencent raised its stake in games developer Ubisoft, valuing the business at $10bn, with funds used to leverage existing IP in the metaverse; and probably the largest metaverse-related investment to date.  
  • Microsoft’s government contested acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $69bn as their own “building block for The Metaverse.”
  • Growth Catalyst Partners is building out a design agency focused on the Metaverse through bolt-on acquisitions for their platform Journey. In 2022, they acquired leading agencies in digital and physical experiences (Squint/Opera and ICRAVE), voice (Skilled Creative) and metaverse/gaming/Web3 (Future Intelligence Group and TheDevHouse Agency).

Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms.

Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft

Ones to watch

Conclusion  

Although no unifying definition of The Metaverse yet exists, signals clearly show that building or acquiring capabilities in this space is of increasing strategic importance as market opportunities evolve. As a result, we expect to see a material increase of investment from both industry participants e.g. marketing groups, content producers and consultancies, as well as from financial investors looking to ride positive sector tailwinds and build the next generation of Web 3.0 related products and services. 

Equally, there will be increasing demand and expectations made of the technology platforms that this content will sit on. Current early movers such as Decentraland, The Sandbox, Epic and Meta are likely to be challenged as demands for real time rendering across devices become the expected standard.  

Once again, expect more investment and M&A as the larger players try to keep up with technological advances.  

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Structured Equity or Special Situations

Structured Equity or Special Situations

Author: Adam Gross, Managing Director at JEGI CLARITY

Many private equity funds that traditionally lead leveraged buy-out (LBO) transactions for majority control of companies are creating “Special Opportunity” or “Structured Capital” funds to provide middle-market companies with flexible financing solutions, offering founders and CEOs with an opportunity to raise capital quickly to solve financing needs. These investments are typically structured as minority investments, and the capital can be used by founders/CEOs to solve short-term financing needs, invest in growth initiatives, and/or invest in operations.

Many times, these financing solutions can address situational complexity, from companies seeking capital to pay down debt, to businesses experiencing difficulty securing capital from their usual sources. Furthermore, these solutions can aid founders/CEOs who are seeking to opportunistically invest to support growth in their businesses, without having to give up control of their companies.

One interesting solution for middle-market companies is “Structured Preferred Equity”, an innovative way for companies to raise capital without diluting their ownership stake as much as they would with traditional debt or equity financing. This can be especially beneficial for founders/CEOs who want to maintain control of their companies, while raising capital in a relatively short time – typically within four weeks. For investors, this type of equity investment can provide more robust protection than traditional common equity, which enables investors to move faster in providing the financing, given the lower risk profile.

Here are the general terms and types of structured preferred equity a founder/CEO should expect:

Interest – preferred equity offers the investor an interest payment typically paid as Paid-in-Kind (PIK) interest, which accrues over time and is paid at a later date; this enables the company to conserve cash and utilize that cash for operational investments and growth initiatives; current market rate is in the low double-digit percentage range

Liquidation Preference – preferred equity may provide downside protection to the investor by guaranteeing a certain level of return, before the common equity is paid; for example, a 1.25x liquidation preference guarantees the investor a 1.25x return on their investment before the common shareholders receive any payment

Participating Preferred – typically, this type of preferred equity provides downside protection via a liquidation preference, while also offering the investor the opportunity to participate in the common equity value of the company; as such, once the preferred equity investor receives its interest payments and guaranteed return, it then participates in the common equity waterfall, enabling it to partake in the company’s upside

Convertible Preferred – in this type of preferred equity, the investor chooses either the preferred value of the security or the converted value of the common shares; basically, the investor chooses between the greater of the two calculated values, providing the investor with downside protection, as the minimum value is the preferred value, while offering the investor the option to participate in the company’s upside via the common equity

A few things to consider, structured preferred equity can be more expensive than traditional debt or equity financing, as investors typically demand a higher rate of return for this type of investment.  Structured preferred equity can also limit the flexibility of the company, as the terms of the preferred stock may include certain restrictions on the company’s operations or decision-making.

Another important aspect to consider is that structured preferred equity is typically not for companies that are in very early stages of development.  It’s more suitable for companies that have a track record of generating revenue and profitability and are looking to expand/invest in growth.

In Conclusion  

Structured preferred equity can be a highly flexible, fast and effective way for companies to raise capital.  It’s important to understand the pros and cons before deciding, and experienced investment banking professionals will help you understand this financing option and opportunity better, can introduce an array of firms that offer this type of financing solution and will help companies and founders align with the best partner at the best terms. 

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2023 Ready, Set… Reset.  Doing More with Less

2023 Ready, Set…Reset. Doing More with Less

As we look forward to 2023, we expect it to be a year of resetting and cost cutting; a time where CEOs will be asked to do more with less.  Set against these macro-conditions, however, there are reasons for optimism.  

Authors: Chris Karl, Chief Business Development Officer, North America & San Datta, Partner, EMEA

The post-pandemic period of exuberance for much of the Media, Information and Technology sectors which saw sky high valuations, record private equity investment and highly leveraged growth has definitely retreated through the second half of 2022 due to an array of factors from macro to micro.  Whether you chalk it up to supply chain disruption, political turmoil, challenging capital markets, tightening monetary policy or the war in Ukraine, the second half of 2022 saw a dramatic fall of 33% in global M&A activity compared to the first half, resulting in total 2022 M&A volumes being down 37% on 2021.

As we look forward to 2023, we expect it to be a year of resetting and cost cutting; a time where CEOs will be asked to do more with less.  Set against these macro-conditions, however, there are reasons for optimism.  

Across our sectors, we continue to see revenue growth and profitability coming from companies that integrate tech-enabled services and expand offerings to drive positive outcomes for customers.  These powerful underlying drivers, coupled with robust corporate balance sheets, will continue to drive both growth and M&A appetite from strategic acquirers through 2023 and beyond. 

From a private equity perspective, an estimated US$2Tn of dry powder in the hands of global private equity funds1 and a rapidly evolving media and technology marketplace provides the foundation for more investor-led M&A and capital deployment in the coming year.  

While the exact timing is uncertain, we are confident that M&A in the mid-market will return to robust levels of activity as debt markets ease and the wave of digital transformation continues to roll across industries. 

So, what are some specific areas of growth and opportunity for 2023?  

Digital Services: consolidation continues 

Digital services growth, both geographic and through the marketing stack, will continue to thrive and, with a market of over $100Bn in North America and the UK alone, the market opportunity remains huge for the winners. The increasingly long list of private equity backed digital platform plays such as Dept, Bounteous, Material+, Wpromote, Valtech and Tinuiti will continue to scale through acquisition and reach further into adjacent markets bringing the CMO closer to the CTO and CIO.    

Events: face-to-face is back… and it matters 

At the epicentre of B2B lives the Events space, a sector that saw an unprecedented post-pandemic bounce-back during 2022. With the North American market forecast back at 97% of 2019 levels in 2023, and Europe at 96%, momentum has returned, and M&A is back on the agenda.  The physical channel remains attractive to business, the interweaving of in real live (IRL) and digital to create a drop-in, drop-out hybrid world has paved the way forward for the industry, and we expect to see buyers focusing on companies which enable this proposition, for example Clarion’s acquisition of Quartz or Brunico’s acquisition of NAPTE.  

Content Creation: a new revolution?  

Technology has transformed the nature of dissemination of content via a rapidly expanding universe of service providers that help media owners and brands capture, curate, distribute, and monetize their content assets, in turn driving a wealth of M&A and investment. Be it strategic, such as Unity’s $1.6Bn acquisition of Weta Digital’s tech division, or from private equity, such as Bridgepoint’s investment in multi-channel content platform, ITG, or PSG Equity’s investments into Backlight, we anticipate that new technologies will transform the way content is produced, automating much of what was historically done in studios, on production sets and on location. We are already beginning to see AI driven content creation technologies delivered through high-end animation and more sophisticated visual effects. 

These capabilities will bring down the cost of production which is a welcome trend in these inflationary times. 

The Metaverse: one for all or all for fun?  

Although we are not at a mass adoption point for Web 3.0 or VR/AR, demand for connected communication, gaming, eSports and content will play into the metaverse becoming more than just a concept for many.  Indeed, we anticipate more investment and M&A activity in the core technologies that drive Web 3.0, in service providers and technology tools that help B2B users and in connected consumer content.

Witness for example, Microsoft’s government contested $69Bn acquisition of games publisher Activision or, on a smaller scale, Arogo Capital’s $665Mn acquisition of EON Reality, a provider of AR/VR solutions for virtual offices. 

CTV: a new advertising battleground

The “Future of TV” is here as the connected TV (CTV) market is the fastest growing media channel at over 23% in 2022 and forecasted growth will continue in the coming year as Netflix introduces an ad supported tier.  Advanced formats will be introduced, and M&A will follow, with deals like LionTree’s acquisition of Transmit.Live to start the year.  Demand for content will drive innovations that serve individual homes with customized streams supported by dynamically inserted relevant ads and CTV moves into “must buy” status with media buyers.  

ROI: making it count 

Over the last couple of years, we have seen a real acceleration in ROI-driven sales and marketing solutions powered by content, data and technology which are increasingly taking budget from traditional advertising and marketing spending. The economic slowdown will only make these businesses more attractive to brands and corporates as every marketing dollar gets more scrutiny. Whether this is the “tip-of-spear” +$25Bn sales acceleration market populated by the likes of ZoomInfo and Cognism, or further up the funnel, the $10Bn content-led affiliate marketing world, expect to see large scale integrators looking to acquire ROI-focused capabilities.

Other catch phrases and technology we predict you’ll hear a lot more about in the coming months include Chat GTP, Applied AI, ESG, Sustainability, Staff Augmentation and Cloud Migration. 

You will also want to pay attention to Google and Facebook’s waning hold on advertising budgets, TikTok’s issues with their ownership structure in China, and Musk’s progress with remaking Twitter.  As these leading digital platforms face headwinds there is potential for upstarts, challengers, and the “others” to grow revenue even in a down year.  That’s good news for many companies.        

In Conclusion  

Contemplating what to watch out for in 2023, we are reminded that even in the face of macro headwinds, the digital and technology revolution charges on.   

Entrepreneurs and founders always find a way and often it’s on the back of technology that makes it all possible.  2023 will be a year where resilience breeds a new collection of winners, solidifies new and efficient use cases for hyped technologies, and the beginning of a new economic cycle of prosperity begins.     

1 S&P Global Market Intelligence

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Power of 5: The New Paradigm for Insights

“Power of 5”
The New Paradigm for Insights

5 Leaders, 5 Questions, 5 Minutes

The New Paradigm for Insights

Introducing our latest Power of 5 series. We ask 5 industry leaders 5 questions in 5 minutes to gain insight on how they are succeeding in today’s market.

In this series we examine the research, insights, and measurement sector, how that sector has evolved over the last 18 to 24 months, and what that means for M&A.

Over 5 weeks we interviewed 5 selected executives from leading corporations. Topics of discussion included current challenges facing clients, learnings from the last two years, and M&A criteria going forward.

Key Takeaways

  • There is an increasing need to demonstrate impact beyond delivering insights and contribute more directly to the growth ambitions of clients.
  • Clients need a quicker and better understanding of the changing marketplace. Companies need to help clients understand, predict, and act on change.
  • It is important to have an M&A program that is embedded and aligned with your company’s current and future needs.
  • Given the broader macroeconomic environment, clients need data in real time to validate their decisions.

Speakers

Kristof De Wulf, Chief Executive Officer,

Barrie Brien, Group CEO,

Tugce Bulut, Founder & CEO,

Christoph Haschka, Group Director of M&A,

Matt Britton, Founder & CEO,

Full Interviews Below

Kristoff De Wulf speaks with San Datta
Tugce Bulut speaks with San Datta
Matt Britton speaks with Kevin Moore
Barrie Brien speaks with San Datta
Christoph Haschka speaks with Michael Hirsch

I believe in innovation and that the way you get innovation is you fund research and you learn the basic facts.

Bill Gates