Media Intelligence Competitive Landscape Poised for Transformation
Jinfo Blog

By Chris Porter

Abstract

Chris Porter identifies what the media intelligence landscape could look like if leading players Vocus and Cision join forces under private equity company GTCR.

Item

Two of the leading players in the media intelligence market, US-based Vocus and Swedish-based Cision, look set to join forces under the ownership of private equity firm GTCR.

Defining Media Intelligence Services

Media intelligence services typically combine traditional and social media monitoring; media measurement and analysis; and contact management of, and in some cases press release distribution to, journalists, social media commentators and other key influencers.

Large and medium-sized organisations almost invariably maintain subscriptions to some or all of these components.

Meltwater Counter Bid

Well-known web-based news aggregator Meltwater has mounted a strenuous counter-bid for Cision, but does not look set to succeed.

Chicago-based GTCR ended its acquisition bid period with a holding of over 70% in the Swedish company and clearly signalled that it did not intend to sell those shares to Meltwater.

Consolidating Market Leadership?

Ratings firms Standard & Poor's and Moody's have both pronounced on the business combination.

S&P opined that the outlook for the Cision-Vocus combination is stable. Moody's commented that Vocus and Cision are each leaders in various segments of the PR software industry and the combination should further enhance their position, but also mentioned forthcoming integration challenges and said divestitures would be required by both companies.

The new business combination could have some very interesting consequences for the competitive dynamic in the market. Previous information industry mergers throw up some intriguing parallels, which did not work out at all badly for buyers of information services.

Editor's Note

FreePint Subscribers can log in to read and share more about the possible implications in Media Intelligence Providers Vocus and Cision Set to Join Forces and can read more about the market in Social Media Monitoring: the Options.

The FreePint Topic Series: Beyond Aggregation ran from October to November 2013. You can still register your interest to receive a free copy of the FreePint Report: Buyer's Guide on News Content published in early December.

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