M & A
2025 – A look back and forwards as M & A activity continues apace into the new year
John McGovern, CEO Gimes McGovern & Associates, digs into the deals of 2025 and recaps January’ s busy activity
025 was another busy
2 year in the events industry with 90 or so majority event deals happening throughout the year – including all bolt-ons( individual or divisional expos, events, and conferences). This is consistent with the last post-Covid years. And 2026 is off to a good start with at least half a dozen deals at time of writing.
While household names of a couple of large PE-owned tradeshow organisers didn’ t trade as expected in 2025, there were other PE-to-PE deals for companies that do events and new portfolio companies created. ALM( American Lawyer Media) and Foundry( a carve out from IDG) went from PE firm to PE firm, and Northstar Media Group( backed by EagleTree Capital) went from PE to a public Japanese company.
Foundry, who produce“ 900 events in 35 countries” was sold by Blackstone to Regent, and EagleTree Capital-backed ALM went to Intermediate Capital, who also own Law Business Research( LBR). There were also buyers for two others( one B2B and the other B2C) that were sold by founders to PE firms.
All in all, with five new PE firms and one new public firm adding the events market to their businesses, it is good news for M & A and independent show organisers. It means there are more new PE players looking for bolt-ons to add to their growing portfolios.
Above: John McGovern Event M & A deals from November 2025-mid January 2026 Company Date Investor Halldale Group January 2026 Montgomery Group Rheumatology Winter Clinical Symposium January 2026 GlennHenn Capital, MJK Life Sciences Futurebuild Events January 2026 Media 10 Marine Money January 2026 Diversified Communications SubSummit January 2026 Nineteen Group Mediapro Messut January 2026 Expomark Reliabilityweb. com December 2025 Nineteen Group The Lead December 2025 Nineteen Group Energy Projects Conference & Exhibition December 2025 Cobepa, Easyfairs, Inflexion PE On24 December 2025 Cvent Goldcast December 2025 Cvent PacPrint November 2025 Visual Connections Australia VFP Communications November 2025 MBO WTE Miami November 2025 Fairfest Media Eagle Alpha( Events Business) November 2025 A-Team Consulting London Wine Fair November 2025 MBO / Vindustrius / Perrin & Partners HuT – Messe & Event November 2025 Leipziger Messe The Conference Forum November 2025 MidOcean Partners, Questex Vesalinx November 2025 MidOcean Partners, Questex
It’ s also consistent with an average of five to six new PE companies dipping their toes into the events, exhibitions, and conferences market annually.
In other activity, PE-backed Questex became more active again in 2025 buying Versalinx, The Conference Forum and Multifamily Executive.
PE-backed Easyfairs took the less common step of carving-out a show while they are acquiring, selling Future Build to Media10. Most PEbacked companies don’ t often do this, but it’ s smart to intentionally focus on their core markets. Easyfairs also completed one of their first US deals as well to add to their at least three others in Europe, buying Energy Projects Conference & Expo.
Non-PE backed buyer activity was led by public company EmeraldX( with PE roots), one of the leaders overall, with six deals overall, and privately-owned Terrapinn completing at least two deals.
Other notable activity in the last months of 2025 was Phoenix Equity-backed event organiser Nineteen Group, after investing in a strong leadership team in the US, completed three acquisitions in the US( SubSummit, The Lead, and ReliabilityWeb), catching up to Closer Still and Hyve Group in the race of UK-based event organisers looking to build their businesses in the desirable North American market.
This is in addition to the five deals Nineteen Group did in Europe and Asia throughout the year, making them one of the leaders in terms of overall activity as well.
As mentioned earlier, 2026 is off to a strong start and we look to see it continue. EW
n Grimes, McGovern & Associates is a leading lower middle-market Mergers & Acquisitions firm advising media, events, and information services businesses globally. www. exhibitionworld. co. uk Issue 1 2026 11