- German media company Axel Springer is merging its Business Insider Intelligence and eMarketer subsidiary units together
- The two companies are going to keep their names separate following the restructuring
- Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget will be the head of the combined units while eMarketer CEO Geoff Ramsey will have the chief evangelist role
German media company Axel Springer is planning to merge its Business Insider Intelligence and eMarketer subsidiary units together. Both of these units have been operating independently ever since they were bought by Axel Springer.
eMarketer and Business Insider Intelligence — which is the research arm of Business Insider — will be headed up by Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget. And eMarketer CEO Geoff Ramsey will have the chief evangelist role for the combined units.
“We just realized this product suite would work exceptionally well for clients together,” said Blodget in an interview with AdAge. “So we decided to combine the companies, and the overall research firm will be focused on digital transformation—we think that’s an area where there will be great demand for data and insight for many years to come.”
Axel Springer itself is also potentially going through a major restructuring where it will buy back shares with the backing of KKR to take the company private. Going private would enable Axel Springer to ramp up its corporate intelligence and research units without the scrutiny of public shareholders.
“It’s a huge opportunity for both entities to tackle fin-tech, health care, education, as well as media and marketing and all the stuff that we’ve been covering,” added Ramsey via AdAge. “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.”
The merger of these units will not cause any layoffs. In fact, it is quite the opposite as Blodget said that the combined company is planning to go from 200 employees to 400 in the next five years. And the two companies are going to keep their names separate following the restructuring.
