Financial Times Acquires Majority Stake in TNW

TNW
Patrick de Laive (Founder TNW), Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten (Founder and CEO TNW), Robert Jan de Laive (CFO TNW)

The Financial Times, one of the world’s leading business news organizations, has acquired a controlling stake in Amsterdam, The Netherlands-based TNW (The Next Web), an events and media company with a focus on new technology and startups in Europe.

The acquisition, its first in continental Europe, will deepen the FT’s reach into the European technology community and create synergies with its existing events business, FT Live. The move also complements the FT’s recent investment in Sifted, a new media and data platform targeting Europe’s innovators and entrepreneurs, and the expansion of various other tech-themed editorial products.

Led by Patrick de Laive (Founder), Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten (Founder and CEO), and Robert Jan de Laive (CFO), TNW is a global digital brand that informs and connects people who love tech, through media, events, and services.

Primarily known for its media site thenextweb.com and tech event TNW Conference, the company also incorporates:
– a co-working label (TQ.co),
– a global startup database (Index.co) and
– delivers custom innovation programs to corporates and governments via TNW X.

The FT and TNW have already announced a new content partnership for TNW’s flagship tech conference, TNW2019. The FT will programme one of the event tracks and will co-host The Assembly, an exclusive gathering of technology leaders, industry figures and key policy-makers.

The acquisition forms part of a corporate development strategy that has seen the FT diversify its business in strategic areas. It follows the acquisitions by FT in recent years of:
– AlphaGrid, a content production company,
– GIS Planning, a San Francisco-based investment intelligence company, and
– Longitude, a specialist provider of thought leadership and research services.

The Financial Times is one of the world’s leading business news organisations, with a readership of 985,000, three-quarters of which are digital subscriptions. It is part of Nikkei Inc., which provides a broad range of information, news and services for the global business community.

FinSMEs

24/03/2019

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