UFI
Large platform deals take centre stage and Q1 featured a different buyer crowd
By John McGovern, CEO / Owner Grimes McGovern & Associates
wo deals announced in
T early May signal that large exhibition platform M & A is heating up.
Searchlight Capital invested in CloserStill alongside existing owner Providence, in a deal valuing the business at over £ 1.3bn. Apollo Global Management ' s agreements to acquire both Emerald and Questex, with the intention of combining them into a platform of over 160 events further reinforces this signal.
It was good to see the creativity in these deals – with CloserStill, Providence staying in partially, and the combining of Questex and Emerald and going to Apollo.
Apollo was conspicuously absent from the list of larger PE that didn’ t have ownership in our industry. Notably, Apollo ' s announcement made direct references to Artificial Intelligence, a sign that they see AI as helping live, in-person experiences rather than being a threat to them – a sentiment shared by many industry observers. Having these two PE deals happen will continue to help the healthy bolt-on activity in our space for this year and beyond.
One view is that B2B events platforms – especially those that come close to billion dollar valuations – have done such a good job growing that their list of likely buyers gets smaller. Most strategic buyers are not active at that size level, so it’ s only the largest PE firms that would typically look. Searchlight’ s investment in CloserStill and Apollo’ s agreement to acquire Emerald and Questex, could be the beginning of what many believe will be heightened activity at the platform
Above: John McGovern
level. This activity then creates fresh buyers and fresh capital that feeds the rest of the M & A market and the 100 or so bolt-ons or similar that typically happen every year.
Apollo’ s move is maybe more ambitious. The firm has entered into separate agreements to acquire both Emerald and Questex and combine them. Questex is particularly good at digital communities( and events) which is a good combination with Emerald’ s strength in exhibitions.
Platform deals like these command attention, but they represent the exception rather than the rule. Stepping back to look at Q1 2026 in full, the picture is one of steady, incremental activity – roughly 95 out of every 100 deals done in any given year are boltons or their equivalent, and the first quarter was no different in that respect – 20 bolt-on deals in Q1 2026. What did stand out, however, was a notable shift in who was doing the buying. In Q1 2025, PE- backed companies were the buyers of about 15 out of the 20 deals that got done. In 2026, it flipped and non- PE backed companies were the buyers in about 15 of 20 deals. We don ' t think this is a trend away from PE buying, just a feature of Q1 activity. These deals had diverse buyers such as trade association Avixa buying Lightapalooza, Terrapinn buying Future of Memory and Storage( a GMA deal) and Koru Media buying The Print Show.
In conclusion, platforms are not built overnight; they grow through steady bolt-on activity: targeted, smaller acquisitions that fill vertical gaps, add geographic reach, or bring in complementary audiences. After the Searchlight and Apollo deals close, the resulting scaled platforms will likely have a fresh look at new acquisitions. EW
n Grimes, McGovern & Associates is a leading lower middle-market Mergers & Acquisitions firm advising media, events, and information services businesses globally.
14 Issue 3 2026 www. exhibitionworld. co. uk