Industry Technology and media Owner McGovern Foundation Founder Patrick Joseph McGovern Type of business Private | Area served Worldwide Website www.idg.com Founded 1964 | |
 | ||
Formerly called International Data Corporation Founders Patrick Joseph McGovern Headquarters Boston, Massachusetts, United States CEO Michael Friedenberg (Nov 2013–) Subsidiaries International Data Corporation, Mac Publishing Profiles | ||
International Data Group, Inc. (IDG) is an American-based media, data and marketing services and venture capital organization. IDG evolved from International Data Corporation (IDC) which was founded in 1964 in Newtonville, Massachusetts, by Patrick Joseph McGovern. IDC provides market research and advisory services and is now a subsidiary of IDG.
Contents
- Business
- Death of founder and sale
- IDG Connect
- IDG Ventures
- IDG in Europe
- IDG in China
- IDG in Australia
- IDG Global Brands
- References
IDG operates in 97 countries and is headquartered in Boston. IDG's brands include CIO, Computerworld, PCWorld and Macworld. IDG produces these and its other publications on a national level in each country.
Business
IDG's subsidiary IDG World Expo produces large-scale events, such as conventions. These are typically conventions for technology businesses. IDG World Expo runs E for All, Macworld Conference & Expo, and LinuxWorld Conference and Expo.
IDG also has its own international news agency, IDG News Service. It is headquartered in Boston and has bureaus in cities such as New York, Beijing, Amsterdam and Brussels. It provides news, images, video and other editorial content to IDG's web sites and print publications worldwide.
In 2005, several investors, including IDG, attempted to purchase BlogCN.
IDG Books, which was a public company spun off from the privately held IDG, published the popular self-help "...For Dummies" books. The "...For Dummies" range was originally limited to computer related fields, but later expanded to include a much wider variety of topics. The series is now published by John Wiley & Sons. IDG Books/Hungry Minds — as IDG Books was briefly renamed before being sold to Wiley in 2001 — no longer exists as a separate company.
Death of founder and sale
In 2014, the founder and then-owner died, leaving the corporation to the McGovern Foundation, a family corporation.
In 2016, the corporation retained Goldman Sachs to explore a possible sale. On January 19, 2017, the Wall Street Journal reported that China Oceanwide Holdings Group was, as part of a Chinese consortium, acquiring International Data Group Inc., at the time known for IDG Ventures. Also at the time, International Data Group published publications such as Computerworld magazine, and according to the Journal, was "one of the first global venture capital investors in China."
IDG Connect
IDG Connect, a division of International Data Group (IDG), produces, publishes and distributes local IT and business information. Founded in 2006, it has offices in Framingham, Massachusetts, and Staines, Middlesex, U.K., and offers lead generation, research, video, mobile apps, "lead nurturing" and content creation.
IDG Ventures
IDG Ventures was founded in 1996. It is an international network of venture capital funds with approximately $3.6 billion under management and an over 220 companies formed over the last 17 years. The IDG Ventures network comprises five independent partnerships managing funds in North America and Asia. Each partnership makes investments on behalf of its limited partners, including IDG. The latest San Francisco fund, formed in 2007, accepted other institutional investors in addition to IDG, which remains a major investor. Following the successful launch of the San Francisco fund, IDG organized its non-publishing investments in China into venture funds. In 2009, IDG Ventures China renamed itself IDG Capital Partners to reflect the breadth of its half dozen funds encompassing start-up venture through growth investments. In 2000, IDG started a fund in Europe; this fund is now closed. In 2001, IDG started a fund in Boston, also named IDG Ventures. The manager of the Boston fund renamed itself Flybridge Capital Partners in 2008 and is no longer associated with the IDG Ventures funds. In the 2000s, IDG started funds in Vietnam, India and Korea. As of 2013, there are five countries with IDG funds - China, Vietnam, India, Korea and the United States (San Francisco).
IDG in Europe
IDG publishes magazines and websites in 21 European countries and multiple languages.
In June 2008, Pat McGovern said that two thirds of IDG's readership in the U.S. were online readers, while in Europe two thirds were print readers. The company has tried to gain more online readers with the launch of UK titles, Techworld and Computerworld UK and the launch of TecChannel in Germany - all three of which are online-only titles.
Computer Sweden, the Swedish edition of Computerworld, is a tabloid size morning newspaper published twice a week. Its turnover is larger than the German Computerwoche and is IDG's largest publication in Europe, according to McGovern. Computer Sweden is printed and circulated in 40,000 copies. IDG also publishes IT Bransjen, a Norwegian trade publication for the IT sales channel in Norway. IT Bransjen is published 11 times a year, circulating 10,000 copies.
IDG in China
IDG has a subsidiary in China engaged exclusively in the venture capital business. This subsidiary was the first investor in prominent Bitcoin business Coinbase, with a sum of $100,000 raised in 2011. One of the ventures of IDG with Trends Media Group and Hearst Media is a men's magazine, Shishang xiansheng, Chinese version of Esquire.
IDG in Australia
IDG has a wholly owned subsidiary based in Sydney, Australia. Employing around 70 staff, IDG Australia was incorporated in 1978 and operates local versions of the brands Computerworld, CIO, PC World, TechWorld, and Australian-specific brands ARN and GoodGearGuide.