Business Insider, eMarketer To Combine In Merger With 'Huge Opportunity'

Financial news platform Business Insider and market research company eMarketer will merge to become one entity, Reuters reported Thursday. 

What Happened

Business Insider and eMarketer already share the same parent company, German publisher Axel Springer. As of Jan. 1, 2020, the two entities will merge, with Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget leading the two companies.

Business Insider was acquired by Axel Springer in 2015 and saw revenue grow at an average annual rate of 33% in 2018, Reuters said. The publication hit $100 million in revenue last year and turned a profit, according to the newswire. 

Why It's Important

Axel Springer's decision to merge its two U.S.-focused properties comes at a time when private equity firm KKR is preparing to buy out the publisher's minority shareholders. The private equity giant is supporting Axel Springer's main owners, who want to delist the European stock to become a private company, Reuters said. 

What's Next

Geoff Ramsey, eMarketer CEO, was quoted by AdAge as saying the merger represents a "huge opportunity" to better "tackle fintech, health care, education, as well as media and marketing and all the stuff that we've been covering.

"There are lots of opportunities for exploration and growth [and] eMarketer will now actually be able to have way more resources to cover the global market across all those verticals," he said. 

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