prabhuThe Financial Times has bought a controlling stake in consumer publisher The Next Web, marking its first acquisition in continental Europe.
Amsterdam-based TNW, an events and media company, has a focus on new technology and start-ups in Europe. The FT, which was acquired by Japanese media group Nikkei in 2015, did not disclose financial details of the deal.
The FT said the deal would allow it to increase its presence in the European technology sector, enabling it to tap audiences that TNW has been cultivating since it was founded in 2006.
“The investment will draw on the synergies between TNW’s business and FT Live, in sharing audiences and delivering our world class journalism on live stages in Europe,” said Angela Mackay, global publisher at FT Live, the FT’s events business.
The FT said TNW was “established and profitable”. It is the FT’s latest move to diversify its portfolio, following investment in Sifted, a new media and data platform aimed at European entrepreneurs earlier this year, and the purchase of Alpha Grid, a content production company, and GIS Planning, a San Francisco-based investment intelligence company.
