The Financial Times acquires a controlling stake in The Next Web

The Financial Times, a major news organisation headquartered in London, has acquired a controlling stake in The Next Web (TNW), Amsterdam-based media and digital company with a range of products and services for the tech community. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

“TNW continues to operate independently and its management and the founders (Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten and Patrick de Laive) continue to execute the vision that the company has set out,” TNW stated in a press release.

TNW started in 2006 as a small tech conference in Amsterdam, which has grown into one of the major European events, attracting some 15,000 attendees in 2018. Its media outlet of the same name has around 7 million monthly visits, according to Similarweb. In addition to that, TNW incorporates a curated co-working brand TQ, a global startup database Index.co, and delivers custom innovation programs to corporates and governments via TNW X.

The deal marks FT Group's first strategic investment in mainland Europe, which “will deepen the FT's reach into the European technology community and create synergies with its existing businesses, amongst others FT Live (events),” TNW stated in a press release.

“TNW is an established and profitable business that produces one of the largest and most critically acclaimed tech startup events in Europe,” said Angela Mackay, global publisher at FT Live. “There are clear synergies between TNW and FT Live, in sharing audiences and delivering the FT’s world-class journalism on live stages in Europe. We look forward to delivering first-class programs with our new partners.”

The news comes shortly after the FT and TNW announced a content partnership for the upcoming TNW Conference on May 9-10 in Amsterdam. The FT will programme one of the tracks at the event and co-host The Assembly, an exclusive gathering of technology leaders, industry figures and key policy-makers.

The Financial Times is also an investor in Sifted.eu, a Europe-focused tech publication that's headquartered in the FT's building in London. Sifted was founded by the FT’s innovation editor John Thornhill and employs several reporters who used to write for the FT.

In the photo, left to right: Patrick de Laive, co-founder of TNW; Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, co-founder and CEO of TNW; Robert Jan de Laive, CFO of TNW.