INT Media Acquires Jupiter Research

INT Media Group, Inc., the parent company of this website, purchased the remaining research and events businesses from Internet research firm Jupiter Media Metrix for $250,000.

by Erin Joyce of internetnews.com [June 24, 2002]

The deal marks a final chapter in the history of the New York-based Jupiter Media Metrix, which has been selling off units for the past year amid a two-year shakeout in the Internet-related and technology industry.

It recently sold its North American and research panel assets to Virginia-based comScore Networks for $1.5 million in cash. In April, its onetime acquirer NetRatings paid $8.5 million to acquire Jupiter's Seattle-based AdRelevance group, which tracks online campaigns, sites' ad sales and advertisers' spending.

INT Media Group, a technology trade publisher of about 150 websites and a trade show planner, also provides research and in-depth analysis on six segments of the Internet and Information Technology industries. The sectors include application service providers, online advertising & Web marketing, Internet Service Providers, Internet technology developments, IT investment strategies, and nanotechnology advancements.

The company said Jupiter's research products would be integrated within its network of online publications, including 175 technology industry e-mail newsletters, which number about 5 million subscribers in all. It also plans to fold in Jupiter's events with INT Media's 45 annual seminars and trade shows.

Kurt Abrahamson, president of Jupiter Research, is to continue in the same capacity with INT Media Group, which plans to retain the Jupiter brand name and operate it as its own division within the company.

Alan M. Meckler, chairman and CEO of INT Media Group, said "we are ecstatic to be able to acquire one of the great world brands in market research."

"We look forward to working with the Jupiter team to make INT Media Group the dominant content, event and research company in the Internet and IT arenas."

Robert Becker, chief executive officer of Jupiter Media Metrix, said: "INT Media Group provides the ideal platform for the Jupiter Research and Events businesses to flourish."

Jupiter Media Metrix began as Jupiter Research in the mid 1990s, specializing in Internet-related reports in 17 business areas.

But when the Nasdaq sell-off hit in early 2000, followed by a recession, many of Jupiter's dot-com clients went bust, while corporate spending on dot-com strategies pulled back. As its revenues plummeted, it tried to merge with onetime rival Neilsen//NetRatings, but federal anti-trust concerns about two Internet research firms merging canned the deal.

The acquisition is expected to be neutral to earnings in 2002 and accretive in 2003.

INT Media, with corporate headquarters in Darien, Conn., said the transaction includes assuming some of Jupiter's liabilities as well. The deal is expected to close by the end of July, pending the usual approvals by stockholders.

In the meantime, however, INT Media said it would assume responsibility for operating the Jupiter Research and Events businesses, which employ about 95 people.

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