Big news in the investment research industry: AlphaSense is rumored to be buying Tegus. Two of the titans of the industry are joining forces, creating the largest transcript library. My highlights: - Tegus is said to be valued at $1 Bn, down from the ~$3 Bn they had in November 2021, but still a huge achievement in just 8 years with ~$112m raised. - AlphaSense is said to be valued at $3 Bn, up from $2.5 Bn in September 2023. Going strong ahead of a rumored IPO. - AlphaSense sued Tegus for copyright infringement in September 2023, accusing Tegus for copying its interface and features. The litigation was resolved on May 8, 2024, without stating any reason publicly. - AlphaSense did the same thing before: it sued its competitor Sentieo for copyright infringement in June 2020, and acquired them in May 2022. - In June 2024, Tegus' website says they have 2,500 clients. AlphaSense said they have 4,000 customers in April 2024.
Adding to the above, AlphaSense now announced the deal is indeed happening. Exciting news and congrats to all beneficiaries! 👏 Plus, they just raised $650m funding, confirming the new $4 Bn valuation for the combined business. This sounds like $3.35 Bn for the combined entity, pre-money. That'd be Tegus $930m, and AlphaSense $2.42 Bn, and "money" $650m. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/alphasense_huge-news-today-we-announced-that-weve-activity-7206281146542817281-Sh9F
Here's the court documentation on the lawsuit: https://casetext.com/case/alphasense-oy-v-tegus-inc The patents in question: "cover computer search engines that can search different databases for financial documents, including financial expert transcript libraries, and summarize and display information from those documents on an improved user interface". Hard to imagine casting a wider net! Two example now of patent infringement suit --> acquisition. Feels like mgmt has found an M&A strategy they like!
Wow, big news indeed Max! I wonder how much overlap in client base there is
Prices gonna go up? Seemed they were aggressive in discounting to beat each other before.
A lot of dynamics in a turbulent Market Intelligence environment 🎯
Dealmaking in data providers continues to be strong! Recent transactions were closed at 10-11x revenues, goes to show there is an apetite for these deals
Inspiring and great to see innovation and M&A in the industry. Now the compelling question is what this could mean for the largest part of the ENS industry: private markets including consulting firms. Curious to see the next wave of developments!
Great recap Max Friberg. Thanks!
Great recap Max thanks !
CEO at Inex One || Market research, simplified.
1moLink to the news here: https://fortune.com/2024/06/10/alphasense-tegus-venture-capital-a-i-goldman-sachs-mergers/ We log all expert network M&A and fundraising deals here: https://inex.one/blog/ma-in-the-expert-network-industry