Boston, MA-based IT publishing and events group IDG, the parent of MR group IDC (International Data Corp), is exploring ‘strategic options’ – sale of the company included – with the help of an investment bank.
IDG Pondering Sale OptionIDG (International Data Group) which publishes such titles as PCWorld, and CIO, and produces conferences including Demo and MacWorld. According to the Boston Herald (www.bostonherald.com ), the latest decision comes nearly two years after the death of founder and Chairman Patrick McGovern. Since that time the $3.8bn revenue firm has been owned by the McGovern estate for the benefit of the McGovern Foundation, which focuses on neuroscience and IT ‘for the benefit of humanity’.
A spokesman said Goldman Sachs had now been called in ‘to map out the company’s strategic options’, in response to ‘certain operating requirements of the foundation’.
McGovern started IDG in 1964 and launched Computerworld, its first publication, in 1967. It now boasts 460 web sites, 200 mobile sites and apps, and 179 print titles; and produces more than 700 events in 67 countries. In November, it partnered with Google to introduce a new program which the firms claim will provide 100% viewable ads, and six months earlier it launched a suite of ‘account-based’ b2b marketing and targeting solutions, ABM360, making use of its purchasing intent and buying behavior data.
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