Informa plc is a British

publishing Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

business intelligence Business intelligence (BI) comprises the strategies and technologies used by enterprises for the data analysis and management of business information. Common functions of business intelligence technologies include reporting, online analytical pr ...

, and

exhibitions An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery An art gallery is a roo ...

group based in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, England. It is listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

and is a constituent of the

FTSE 100 Index The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with (in principle) the highest market ...

. It has offices in 43 countries and around 11,000 employees. Informa owns numerous brands including

CRC Press The CRC Press, LLC is an American publishing group that specializes in producing technical books. Many of their books relate to engineering, science and mathematics. Their scope also includes books on business, forensics and information tec ...

, Fan Expo HQ, Game Developers Conference, ''

Lloyd's List ''Lloyd's List'' is one of the world's oldest continuously running journals, having provided weekly shipping news in London as early as 1734. It was published daily until 2013 (when the final print issue, number 60,850, was published), and is ...

'' (London Press Lloyd),

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...

, and

Taylor & Francis Taylor & Francis Group is an international company originating in England that publishes books and academic journals. Its parts include Taylor & Francis, Routledge, F1000 (publisher), F1000 Research or Dovepress. It is a division of Informa ...

. Informa acquired UBM in June 2018 as part of its strategy to expand in North America and Asia.

History

Informa itself was created in 1998 by the merger of IBC Group plc and LLP Group plc. Since then Informa has expanded considerably, including a 2004 merger with the publishing company Taylor & Francis and a 2005 acquisition of IIR Holdings, a human capital development company, for £768 million. In October 2006, the company was approached by Springer Science and Business Media in a takeover bid, but in early November the Informa board rejected the 630p per share offer as too low. In early 2007, chairman Richard Hooper announced his retirement in May and, after consulting with major shareholders, the company moved chief executive Peter Rigby to chairman, and managing director David Gilbertson to Rigby's former post. Informa explained Rigby's move by the need to maintain management stability, although it generated some controversy because it did not follow the advice of the UK's Combined Code on

Corporate Governance Corporate governance is defined, described or delineated in diverse ways, depending on the writer's purpose. Writers focused on a disciplinary interest or context (such as accounting, finance, law, or management) often adopt narrow definitions th ...

. On 8 June 2008, ''

The Sunday Telegraph ''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings. It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', kn ...

'' revealed that

United Business Media UBM plc was a British business-to-business (B2B) events organiser headquartered in London, England, before its acquisition by Informa in 2018. It had a long history as a multinational media company. Its main focus was on B2B events, but its p ...

(UBM) had proposed a merger with Informa to create a media group worth over £3 billion. The talks were confirmed by Informa in a press release that same day, but described as "preliminary". Previously on 13 May ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' had reported that the

Carlyle Group The Carlyle Group is a multinational private equity, alternative asset management and financial services corporation based in the United States with $376 billion of assets under management. It specializes in private equity, real assets, and pri ...

and

Apax Partners Apax Partners LLP is a British private equity firm, headquartered in London, England. The company also operates out of six other offices in New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Tel Aviv, Munich and Shanghai. As of December 2017, the firm, including its ...

were considering bidding for the company. On 17 June talks with UBM ended because of the rapid rise in Informa's stock price after the public disclosure of the potential merger. On 26 June a private equity consortium consisting of

Providence Equity Partners Providence Equity Partners L.L.C. is a specialist private equity firm, private equity investment firm focused on media, communications, education, technology investments across North America and Europe. The firm specializes in growth-oriented pri ...

, the

and

Hellman & Friedman Hellman & Friedman LLC (H&F) is an American private equity firm, founded in 1984 by Warren Hellman and Tully Friedman, that makes investments primarily through leveraged buyouts as well as growth capital investments. H&F has focused its efforts o ...

proposed a takeover bid offering 506 pence per share. In May 2009 the company announced that it would restructure its business to be incorporated in

Jersey Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label=Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependencies, Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west F ...

but tax resident in Switzerland. The discontinued domain Informaworld provided subscribers with more than half a million journal articles and 13,000 e-books from all its imprints. In June 2011 the journals and e-books transferred to a new website, Taylor & Francis Online. Abstracting and indexing databases and bibliographic databases were to move from Informaworld to Taylor & Francis Online at a later date. In July 2013, the company announced that Peter Rigby would retire at the end of 2013 to be replaced as CEO by Stephen Carter. Also in 2013, Informa acquired the Canadian company Hobby Star Marketing, who ran the Fan Expo Canada and Toronto Comicon comic book conventions. Informa has since acquired other conventions and placed them under the auspices of their Fan Expo HQ brand, including

Dallas Comic Con Fan Expo Dallas, previously known as Dallas Comic Con (or DCC for short), is a three-day speculative fiction, (including comic books and Video game, gaming) fan convention held annually in the Dallas, Texas area. Larger in scale than the Dallas Fan ...

and

MegaCon MegaCon, short for Mega Convention, is a large speculative fiction convention that caters to the comic book, sci-fi, anime, fantasy, and gaming communities, often occurring in spring at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. The ...

. In December 2013, Informa acquired the assets of Elsevier Business Intelligence (EBI) from Reed Elsevier. The EBI business unit includes such publications as The Pink Sheet, The Gray Sheet, IN VIVO, Start-Up, and the Strategic Transactions database along with a series of notable conferences. The EBI assets combined with Scrip, Datamonitor and several other publications formed the newly created Pharma Intelligence division of Informa Business Information. In January 2014, Carter became CEO of Informa plc. In September 2017, Informa announced that it would be acquiring Dove Medical Press. In January 2018, Informa announced its intent to acquire UBM plc. The transaction was completed in June 2018. In 2019, Informa sold the former UBM Life Sciences to MJH Associates. Later in 2019, Informa traded it Agriculture Intelligence unit to

IHS Markit IHS Markit Ltd was an information services provider that completed a merger with S&P Global in 2022. Headquartered in London, it was formed in 2016 with the merger of IHS Inc. and Markit Ltd. History IHS Information Handling Services (IHS) "was ...

in exchange for most of IHS Markit's Technology, Media and Telecoms division. Also in 2019, Informa sold the former Penton design & engineering, manufacturing, energy, buildings, and commercial vehicle divisions, and the former UBM Automotive, to Endeavor Business Media. In February 2020, Informa launched Omdia by consolidated its portfolio of market analyst companies,

Ovum Ltd Ovum, now part of Omdia, was an independent analyst and consultancy firm headquartered in London, specializing in global coverage of Telecommunications, Media and Technology. History Ovum was created in 1982 by Tim Johnson, a remote working ...

, Heavy Reading, Tractica, and the majority of

's technology, media and telecommunications research business, into a unified brand. The combined research offering includes more than 400 analysts and consultants covering 150 technology markets. Collectively, Omdia issues over 3,000 research reports annually. In February 2022, Informa sold its Informa Pharma Intelligence unit to investment fund,

Warburg Pincus Warburg Pincus LLC is a global private equity firm, headquartered in New York, with offices in the United States, Europe, Brazil, China, Southeast Asia and India. Warburg has been a private equity investor since 1966. The firm currently has over ...

for $2.6 billion. It also sold ''

'' and EPFR to

Montagu Private Equity Montagu is a mid-market private equity firm with a specialism in carve-out transactions and other first-time buyout investments. Montagu partners with companies with multi-million dollar enterprise values. Headquartered in London, Montagu also ha ...

in 2022.

Operations

Informa is organized into five operating divisions: Informa Connect, Informa Intelligence, Informa Markets, Informa Tech, and

. In June 2021, John Rishton was appointed as chairman, replacing Derek Mapp.

Brands

Informa owns numerous brands including

, Fan Expo HQ, Game Developers Conference, ''

'' (London Press Lloyd),

, and

. Retired and consolidated brands include

Institute for International Research Institute for International Research, Inc. (IIR) was a subsidiary of Informa Plc. It grew from its founding in 1973 to become one of the world's largest conference providers. It became part of the Informa Group in 2005. In 2015, Informa rebra ...

Penton Penton was a rebadged American brand of off-road enduro motorcycles designed by John Penton and manufactured by KTM in Austria for distribution in the United States between 1968 and 1978. History Origins John Penton was an accomplished America ...

, The Public Ledger, and UBM.

Informa Connect

The Bride Show The Bride Show is the leading annual wedding event in the Middle East, comprising The Bride Show Abu Dhabi and The Bride Show Dubai. More than 300 exhibitors participates in the show annually. The main exhibitors are fashion designer, hairstylis ...

Fan Expo Fan Expo is a group of fan conventions operated by Fan Expo HQ, a unit of the Informa Connect division of Informa plc. Most of its events are run under the Fan Expo brand, which stems from its namesake, the Toronto-based Fan Expo Canada. History ...

Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo Calgary Expo, known in full as the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo, is an annual fan convention held at Stampede Park in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Originally taking place in the BMO Centre, the show began in 2005 as a comic book conventi ...

*Edmonton Comic and Entertainment Expo * Fan Expo Boston * Fan Expo Canada (Toronto) * Toronto Comicon *

Fan Expo Chicago Fan Expo Chicago (formerly Wizard World Chicago Comic Con, and commonly known as the Chicago Comicon), is a comic book convention held during the summer in Rosemont, Illinois, United States, at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center. It was tr ...

*Fan Expo Cleveland *

Fan Expo Dallas Fan Expo Dallas, previously known as Dallas Comic Con (or DCC for short), is a three-day speculative fiction, (including comic books and gaming) fan convention held annually in the Dallas, Texas area. Larger in scale than the Dallas Fan Days even ...

*Dallas Fan Festival * Fan Expo Denver *Fan Expo New Orleans *Fan Expo San Francisco *Fan Expo St. Louis *Fan Expo Philadelphia *Fan Expo Portland *Fan Expo Vancouver *

* HRSE * Lloyd's Maritime Academy * MedTech Summit *

Middle East Film and Comic Con The Middle East Film and Comic Con (commonly referred to as MEFCC) is a speculative fiction convention held annually in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in the month of April. The MEFCC showcases comic books and film/television, and other pop cu ...

Nation's Restaurant News ''Nation's Restaurant News'' (''NRN'') is an American trade publication, founded in 1967, that covers the foodservice industry, including restaurants, restaurant chains, operations, marketing, and events. It was owned by Penton Media (acquired by ...

* TMRE

Informa Markets

Arab Health Arab Health is a healthcare conference and trade show in the Middle East. It first took place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in 1975. Healthcare industry representatives attend from the Middle East, Asia, Europe and the United States. Exhibiti ...

Aviation Week Network The Aviation Week Network is a New-York based B2B publishing and event production company. The company was owned and published by McGraw-Hill until it was purchased by Penton Media in 2013. It was then bought by Informa in 2016 The Aviation Week ...

* CAPA - Centre for Aviation * Coterie *

Farm Progress Farm Progress is the publisher of 22 farming and ranching magazines. The company dates back nearly 200 years. Farm Progress Companies is owned by Informa. Farm Progress has the oldest known continuously published magazine, ''Prairie Farmer'', whi ...

* Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show * Inside Self Storage *

Magic Magic or Magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces * Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic * Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...

Monaco Yacht Show The Monaco Yacht Show (MYS) is an annual trade show in Monaco, organised by the British events and publishing company, Informa. It was launched in 1991 as a broker-oriented event focused on superyachts over in length. It is held in Port Hercules, ...

* Project * Qualifi * Routes *

World of Concrete The World of Concrete is an annual trade show for the commercial construction industry. It is held each year either in the months of January or February for four days in Las Vegas, Nevada. This event is a show where products, resources, and info ...

Informa Tech

* Black Hat Briefings * Game Developer * Game Developers Conference * InformationWeek * Light Reading * London Tech Week * The AI Summit * Omdia *

Ward's Ward's is an American organization that has covered the automotive industry for over 80 years. The organization is responsible for several publications including, ''Ward's AutoWorld'', and ''Ward's Dealer Business''. Ward's also publish the an ...

Taylor & Francis

Dove Medical Press Dove Medical Press is an academic publisher of open access peer-reviewed scientific and medical journals, with offices in Macclesfield, London (United Kingdom), Princeton, New Jersey (United States), and Auckland (New Zealand). In September 2017, ...

References

External links

* {{authority control Academic publishing companies Technology websites Publishing companies established in 1998 Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange 1998 establishments in England Event management companies of the United Kingdom Multinational companies headquartered in England