The VidCon sale has finally happened. Owner Paramount Global (which is in the middle of an $8 billion merger with Skydance) has sold the longtime creator-and-fan event to media and events company Informa.
Like some other acquisitions that have happened in our space recently–Publicis and Influential, Wasserman and Long Haul Management–this buy indicates outside interest in the creator space.
Informa, a London-based, publicly traded company that turned over $3.19 billion in revenue in 2023, is already involved in other fandoms, with a division called “Fan Expo HQ” that runs events like Toronto Comicon and Game Developers Conference, but this appears to be its first move in our industry. (Worth noting: it put a bid in to acquire Cannes Lions owner Ascential this past July, just after the festival embraced content creators with a dedicated programming track.)
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A person familiar with the matter told Business Insider they’re optimistic the sale could help VidCon reboot itself and restore creators’ and attendees’ flagging interest.
Back when vlogbrothers Hank and John Green founded the event in 2010, there was no other competitor. Fourteen years later, the digital content space has grown and matured, and there are several other major annual events, including VidSummit, Creator Economy Live, and TwitchCon, that bring creators together to celebrate our industry and where it’s going. VidCon has seemingly struggled to keep up, and recently decided to call off its East Coast event, VidCon Baltimore, to “dedicate […] full efforts and resources to VidCon’s flagship event in Anaheim, scheduled for Summer 2025.”
Paramount, which acquired VidCon in 2018, hasn’t done much to develop the event, and in April of this year hired the bank Oaklins DeSilva+Phillips to explore a sale.
Neither VidCon nor Informa have issued public comments about the sale or about Informa’s potential future plans for VidCon. We, like Business Insider‘s anonymous source, are curious to see where the convention goes with a dedicated events team–and whether it can challenge newer creator-founded events that focus more on the biz dev side of content.
