Informa offloads Omdia and merges it with Techtarget

By / / Canalys, ESG, Heavy Reading, IHS, Informa, IT Analysis Firms, Omdia, Ovum, Starsight Communications

After a long an windy road, Omdia, the UK research firm and successor of Ovum but also of Butler, Datamonitor, RHK, IHS Markit, the recently acquired Canalys and some more…. finally spins off from Informa and goes stateside by merging with TechTarget and its subsidiary ESG (Enterprise Strategy Group, née Enterprise Storage Group) into a new firm creatively named New Techtarget, US HQ’d and planning to be listed on the NASDAQ. Informa will retain control of 57% of the shares of the new USD 500m company, which will be led by Informa Tech’s CEO Gary Nugent.  See the details here.

TechTarget is an information behemoth, having vast information properties including BrightTalk and ComputerWeekly, aggregating intentions of over 30m registered users.

Omdia is the 4th largest industry analysis firm after the FIG’s, and it was rumoured for a while that Informa was trying to find the right positioning for this subsidiary.

The Informa Tech events such as Black Hat will remain within Informa, a blow for the Omdia security practice.

More will be known soon, including how our analyst friends at Omdia including IIAR> Awards winner Maxine Holt / Omdia and ESG will be continue to cover IT markets and advise technology buyers.

Our take

  • The acquisition is not completed and expected to close on September 24th and thus no need to take immediate action.
  • This is an opportunity for a new research business model, monetising intent data rather than the traditional subscriptions + events + consulting model. The possible risk would be to push analysts to write research to drive traffic rather than enterprise technology buyers. Done badly, we might end-upwith the Buzzfeed of research rather than WSJ. Another point to mitigate is the loss of exposure via events such as BlackHat.
  • Interrogate clients to see if they’re using Omdia and ESG to guide their technology choices, not only of course via means of direct inquiries but also by consuming content –including attending events.
  • Previous analyst firm acquisitions by content/information businesses have had a checkered history – see Aberdeen first to Harte Hanke and then in a very similar move to Omdia + TechTarget is now with Ziff Davis, Kennedy, Altimeter but Yankee + 451 + S&P seems to have retained research muscle.
  • Done wrong, it could raise questions around independence and ethics.
  • Done right, it’s a chance for Omdia to gain a stable owner as a separate unit within TechTarget (maybe combined with ESG?) and clear synergies with an intent engine which could compete with peer review sites.

12/1/24 update

Maybe the offload term underplayed both the significance of this for the overall IT analysis market and the possible synergies?

  • Informa PLC’s decision to combine its Informa Tech digital businesses with TechTarget indeed represents a significant realignment of market forces. New TechTarget will be a significant market player, but with a different model to the FIG’s: Gartner (focussing on end-user sales) or IDC (focussing on subscriptions and projects for technology vendors) or Forrester (in-between those).
  • There are synergies identified, on top of the USD 45m savings, but also combining Informa’s IIRIS B2B data platform alongside TechTarget’s rich audience data to deliver unparalleled market access to technology vendors. Omdia has carved out a solid reputation for itself in the technology market with deep industry insights. TechTarget has established itself as a leader in purchase intent-driven marketing and sales services, specializing in the delivery of highly specific content that serves the needs of technology buyers.

Informa’s strategy for its IT research arm has fluctuated significantly over the years, as exemplified by the failed merger of Datamonitor and Ovum. And so offloading in my mind isn’t negative: with a focussed strategy this new combination can be successful and really move the lines by delivering buyer insights to vendors and relevant research to buyers.

IIAR> Members resources

  • IIAR> Member can check some additional analysis here and chip in the discussion.

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