The takeaways
- American investment firm Shamrock Capital is the new owner of Adweek.
- This marks the latest change in Adweek’s ownership since 2015.
- Investment bank CG Petsky Prunier of Canaccord Genuity advised Adweek and previous owner Beringer Capital on the transaction.
What happened?
Los Angeles-based investment firm Shamrock Capital announced its acquisition of Adweek on Wednesday. Adweek, a specialist publication and multi-platform business serving the advertising, print and online industries, was previously owned by Beringer Capital, a buyout firm headquartered in Toronto. Beringer acquired Adweek from Mediabistro Holdings for $20million in 2016. Its transaction terms for the sale of Adweek are currently undisclosed.
Adweek has seen a number of ownership changes over a 5 year period. In 2015, financial services firm Guggenheim Partners spun-off a portfolio of media properties, including Adweek, to former Guggenheim Partners executive, Todd Boehly. Boehly formed Mediabistro Holdings from the properties Mediabistro, the Clio Awards and Adweek, but sold the latter to Beringer the following year. Beringer co-founder Brian F. Martin became Adweek’s chairman.
Under new management… again.
Shamrock issued a press release praising Adweek as “a critical source of information and insights for the marketing and advertising community for decades.” Laura Held, Partner at Shamrock Capital, cited the work of Adweek’s management team in expanding its industry coverage and product offering and strengthening its brand. Adweek CEO Jeffrey Litvack, who will remain at the head of the company, in turn, commended Shamrock’s “strong media expertise.”
Under Beringer, Adweek has consistently achieved annual double-digit growth. It also expanded into education and created three leading industry tentpole events (Brandweek, Challenger Brands, and NexTech), premium corporate subscription and acquired marketing podcast CMO Moves. Adweek’s coverage is estimated to reach over 6 million marketing, advertising and publishing professionals.
