Why PE is paying top multiples for B2B events in 2026

Within the space of ten days in May 2026, two of the largest transactions in B2B events history were announced. Searchlight Capital Partners agreed to invest in CloserStill Media alongside existing owner Providence Equity Partners, in a recapitalisation valuing the business at around $1.77 billion.  

Soon after, Apollo announced its acquisition of Emerald Expositions, with the intention to also acquire Questex and combine these two entities into a leading North American B2B experiential events and media platform.  

Together, these two transactions (excluding the Questex purchase for which the deal value has not been disclosed) represent close to $3.3 billion in deal value, and they say something important about the market. 

CloserStill Media: a growth story rewarded

Providence has owned CloserStill since 2018, when it acquired the business for £340 million. Under Providence’s ownership, CloserStill has grown fivefold, expanding its vertical coverage through a combination of organic growth, new event launches, and targeted M&A.  

At an Enterprise Value of £1.4 billion, sources suggest the deal values CloserStill at c14x 2026 forecast EBITDA. 

What makes the structure of this transaction notable is that – despite the rumours of a highly competitive process – Providence has opted not to exit. Searchlight and Providence take co-control, with Searchlight’s investment giving an independent third-party validation of the value, enabling Providence to invest from its latest fund. 

Searchlight are not a new entrant to the sector either. They co-sponsored the June 2023 acquisition of Hyve Group for around c£520 million, also alongside Providence. Their investment underlines their appetite and conviction for the events sector. 

Emerald and Questex: PE consolidation at scale

Emerald’s sale has been anticipated for some time, with first announcements of a potential deal being made at the end of 2025. The all-cash deal values Emerald (NYSE-listed, but >90% owned by PE house Onex) at an estimated Enterprise Value of $1.5 billion (suggesting a multiple based on 2026 forecast EBITDA of c11x).  

The simultaneous acquisition of Questex adds greater scale and diversification, with some 160 events, combining Emerald’s category-leading exhibitions with Questex’s differentiated events portfolio and 365 digital engagement model.  

Noteworthy, Questex itself ran a sale process, which stalled amid the tariff uncertainty, among other factors, in early 2025. 

Comparing the deals 

Clarion: the comparison

Any analysis of the current market needs to reference what didn’t happen last year. Blackstone sought around $2.7 billion for Clarion Events, but the process stalled and no real offers materialised, with its China-linked Global Sources portfolio cited as a key complicating factor.  

The asking price also put Clarion in a category of its own: at nearly $3 billion, only Informa and RX Global are larger events companies, which narrowed the pool of credible buyers significantly. And given economic uncertainty driving expensive debt, limited interest transpired.  

The contrast with CloserStill and Emerald is instructive. The transactions involved businesses with cleaner strategic profiles, greater growth potential, and lower scale, comparatively to Clarion. These factors appear to have unlocked broader market interest. While Clarion has the scale, they may need to resolve their structural focus before a transaction can get done at the valuation Blackstone was targeting. 

Hyve: what this means 

Also worth noting, the ownership structure of CloserStill’s deal creates an interesting dynamic for Hyve. Providence and Searchlight acquired Hyve in June 2023 for around $711 million. With mirrored ownership across both platforms, and Hyve now approaching three years into that hold, the logic of consolidating Hyve with CloserStill is hard to ignore. Both businesses operate in overlapping verticals, and a combined entity would create one of the largest independent B2B events platforms. 

Or perhaps one of the industry’s other scaled acquirers might provide an exit for Providence and Searchlight. This will be one of the more closely watched questions in the sector over the next 12-24 months. 

What this tells us about the events sector 

The events sector has been active at the smaller end of the M&A market for some time. Based on Collingwood’s own research, the Collingwood Market Report, in 2025 there were approximately 80 global transactions tracked across the B2B events sector, consistent with the volumes recorded in 2024. With the announcements of CloserStill and Emerald we expect this to unlock further activity and demand. 

The reason is straightforward: in-person events have demonstrated that they are not a category at risk of (negative) disruption from tech / digital / AI in the same way that other media formats are. The communities that gather around the best events, the people who come back year after year to buy, sell, learn, and connect cannot be replicated online. That’s not a nostalgic point. It’s a structural one. As AI changes how professionals find and consume information, the value of a curated, high-trust, in-person environment goes up, not down.  

The strongest events businesses have understood this, and they have invested accordingly. 

Shahid Bosan, Managing Director at Apollo, specifically cited the value of in-person gatherings as AI expands how professionals connect online as the rationale for their investment. That framing matters. It is not the language of a buyer trying to find synergies or cut costs. It is the language of a buyer who believes the sector has structural tailwinds. This is a sentiment we expect to come through clearly as we commence our research for the Collingwood Market Report 2026. 

Business models are evolving too 

Both transactions also reflect a broader shift in how the best events businesses are building their revenue bases. The traditional events model – annual show, floor space revenue, sponsorship – is giving way to something more complex and, for investors, more attractive:

• CloserStill has moved deliberately into digitally-enabled formats, including one-to-one meetings, executive roundtables, and lead-enrichment products
• Questex has built its identity around year-round digital community engagement
• Emerald made acquisitions in 2025 that extended its reach into experiential travel, executive summits, and insurance technology.

The direction of travel is consistent: premium content, engaged communities, and multiple touchpoints across the year. Businesses that can demonstrate this model (supported by strong commercial metrics: retention rates, onsite rebook, sales pacing) will command the highest multiples when they come to market. 

Easyfairs and Nineteen: what next? 

The expectation is the CloserStill and Emerald / Questex transactions will shift market sentiment. They demonstrate that PE sponsors will commit at the highest valuation levels for the right assets, and that the events sector can clear deals even in a complicated macro-environment. This is underlined by Apollo’s commitment to the space despite having no meaningful prior events exposure. 

Looking ahead, there are several businesses that investors and advisers will be watching. Nineteen Group had a tremendous year in 2025, with eight acquisitions across both sides of the Atlantic, backed by Phoenix Equity Partners through a continuation fund structure in 2024. The pace of their deal activity in the UK and the US is consistent with a business building toward an exit within traditional PE time horizons.  

Easyfairs (a former bidder for Questex) also took funding two years ago from Cobepa and Inflexion. They have been on their own North American growth journey with acquisitions and new launches in 2025.  

We expect to see both these acquirers remain active in 2026 and beyond as they work towards their own potential sales in the next 24-36 months. 

The Collingwood Market Report 

The Collingwood Market Report tracks M&A sentiment across Information, Media, and Events. Looking ahead to the rest of 2026, we expect another busy year. Deal volumes at the smaller end of the market have been consistent for two years running. What has been missing is the headline transaction that gives the broader market confidence. We now have two of them in the space of a fortnight. And as the PE community digests what Apollo, Providence, and Searchlight have paid, and why, we expect that confidence to translate into accelerated activity across the lower mid-market, where the majority of founders and owners remain the decision makers.

If you’re watching these deals and thinking about what they mean for your business, we’d like to talk. Get in touch.