Informa

Informa plc
Public limited company
Traded as LSE: INF
Industry AcademicPublishing, Business Intelligence, Global Exhibitions, Knowledge, Events
Founded December 1998
Headquarters London
Number of locations
150 offices
Area served
43+ countries worldwide
Key people
Stephen Carter, Baron Carter of Barnes (CEO)
Products Specialist information and business knowledge
Services Large scale events, Exhibitions, Academic Books & Journals, Conferences, Training, Specialist publishing and Intelligence
Revenue £1,212.2 million (2015)[1]
£365.6 million (2015)[1]
£172.7 million (2015)[1]
Divisions Academic Publishing, Business Intelligence, Global Exhibitions, Knowledge & Networking[2]
Website www.informa.com

Informa plc is a multinational publishing and events company with its head office and registered office in London.[3][4] It has offices in 43 countries and around 6,500 employees. It owns numerous brands including CRC Press, Datamonitor, Institute for International Research, Lloyd's List (London Press Lloyd), Routledge, and Taylor & Francis.

It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

History

Informa's oldest business started in 1734 when Lloyd's List, now one of the world's oldest continuously running journals, began covering London shipping news.[5]

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.[6][7] In October 2006, the company was approached by Springer Science and Business Media in a takeover bid,[8] but in early November the Informa board rejected the 630p per share offer as too low.[9]

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.[6][10]

On 8 June 2008, The Sunday Telegraph revealed that United Business Media (UBM) had proposed a merger with Informa to create a media group worth over £3 billion.[11] The talks were confirmed by Informa in a press release that same day, but described as "preliminary".[12][13] Previously on May 13 The Times had reported that the Carlyle Group and Apax Partners were considering bidding for the company.[14] On June 17 talks with UBM ended because of the rapid rise in Informa's stock price after the public disclosure of the potential merger.[15] On June 26 a private equity consortium consisting of Providence Equity Partners, the Carlyle Group and Hellman & Friedman proposed a takeover bid offering 506 pence per share.[16]

On 1 May 2009 the company announced that it would be restructure its business so it was incorporated in Jersey but tax resident in Switzerland.[17]

On 10 July 2013 the company announced that Peter Rigby would retire at the end of 2013 to be replaced as CEO by Stephen A Carter.[18] Also in 2013, Informa acquired the Canadian company Hobby Star Marketing, who runs the comic book convention brand Fan Expo. Informa has since acquired other conventions and placed them under Fan Expo's auspises, including Dallas Comic Con and MegaCon.[19][20][21]

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.[22]

In January 2014, Stephen Carter became CEO of Informa plc.[23]

Operations

The company operates more than 10,000 conferences annually, and publishes newsletters, academic journals, commercial databases, and academic and business books. Topics covered include arts and humanities through social sciences to physical science and technology; and finance and the law through to telecommunications, maritime trade, energy, biotech, commodities and agriculture. Its online publishing portal Informaworld provided subscribers with more than half a million journal articles and 13,000 e-books from all its imprints.[24] 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.[25] Besides publishing, the group has several other interests represented by the brands it owns in many countries. These brands (companies) work in the areas of performance improvement and management consulting. It has the following divisions:

Academic and scientific

Commercial

Professional

  • Insurance Day
  • Council on Education
  • CPDcast
  • Datamonitor
  • Health Insurance Magazine
  • ICBI
  • IIR Finance
  • iMoneyNet
  • Informa Finance
  • Informa Global Markets
  • Informa Insurance
  • Informa Investment Solutions
  • Informa Law
  • Informa Research Services
  • InformaDATA
  • International Faculty of Finance
  • International Insider
  • MarketLine
  • Pharma Intelligence

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Preliminary Results 2015" (PDF). Informa. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  2. TheMediaBriefing (10 July 2014). "Informa restructure aims to 'increase operational, customer and market focus'". Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  3. Informa PLC. "Informa.com - Global Contacts". Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  4. "Global Contacts." Informa. Retrieved on 4 February 2011. "Head Office Mortimer Street, London"
  5. "Lloyd's List". Archived from the original on February 23, 2009. Retrieved 2009-08-23.
  6. 1 2 "ROUNDUP Informa names new chairman, CEO after FY profits soar". Forbes. 2007-03-14. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
  7. "T&F Informa buys conferences group Institute for International Research for 768 mln stg". Forbes. 2007-06-01. Archived from the original on 2008-11-21. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
  8. Kundnani, Hans (2006-10-19). "Springer Science & Business Media launches bid for Informa". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 2007-12-30.
  9. "Informa rejects Springer bid". AFX News Limited. 2006-11-03. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
  10. "Informa unveils new CEO, chairman as 2006 results top forecasts". Forbes. 2006-03-14. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
  11. Harrington, Ben; Kleinman, Mark (2008-06-08). "Media giants United Business Media and Informa open talks on £3bn merger". The Sunday Telegraph (London). Retrieved 2008-06-08.
  12. "Statement Regarding Press Speculation". Informa. 2008-06-08. Retrieved 2008-06-08.
  13. "UBM and Informa confirm merger talks". The Guardian (London). 2008-06-09. Retrieved 2013-07-18.
  14. Andrews, Amanda; Kennedy, Siobhan (2008-05-13). "Informa garners attention of private equity". The Times (London). Retrieved 2008-06-08.
  15. Arnott, Sarah (2008-06-18). "Cash approach for Informa as merger talks end with UBM". The Independent (London). Retrieved 2008-07-07.
  16. Thiel, Simon; Sabine Pirone (2008-07-02). "Informa Rises on $4.29 Billion Private-Equity Offer". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2008-07-07.
  17. Kollewe, Julia (2009-05-01). "Publishing firm Informa blames budget for tax switch". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 2009-05-04.
  18. "Informa announces retirement of Peter Rigby and appointment of Stephen Carter". 10 July 2013. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  19. "Dallas Comic Con Gets a New Owner and Home". Dallas Observer. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
  20. Dineen, Caitlin (7 April 2015). "Orlando's MegaCon sold to Informa". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  21. Mantei, Shelley (9 April 2015). "Informa Exhibitions Expands Pop Culture Convention Portfolio With MegaCon Orlando" (PDF) (Press release). Orlando, Florida: FAN EXPO HQ. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  22. "Informa Acquires Elsevier Business Intelligence". 9 December 2013. Retrieved 9 December 2013.
  23. "Informa Confirms Stephen Carter To Be CEO, Effective Jan. 1 - Update". RTT News. 31 December 2013. Retrieved 2 July 2014.
  24. Griffin, Daniel (December 2006). "Single vision of the world at Informa". Information World Review (230): 2.
  25. "Taylor & Francis Online – FAQs" (PDF). Taylor & Francis Group. 2011. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  26. "Welcome to Informa Healthcare". informahealthcare.com. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  27. "Informa Corporate Learning". Informa Corporate Learning. Retrieved 21 February 2014.

External links

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