City Watches Datamonitor Past and Present

Datamonitor founder Mike Danson has increased his shareholding in TMN plc, which owns research firms ICD and the iD Factor, above the 25% threshold. Meanwhile a new joint bid is said to be taking shape for Datamonitor's new owner, Informa.

Danson spent around £275,000 last Tuesday 12th August for 935,909 shares, taking his holding from 24.01% to 25.28%, just over 19m shares. The move means he can now block the passing of special resolutions such as those that would be required to delist the company - this would limit the options for potential bidders for TMN. A management buyout bid for TMN failed in July.

Danson started Datamonitor in 1990 and sold it to Informa in 2007 for £502m, reportedly making £165m from the sale. He bought 1.2m shares in TMN in April, after rival digital marketing group Tangent pulled out of acquisition talks.

Speculation over the future of Datamonitor's new owner, Informa, continues with UK private equity house Blackstone said to be in talks with existing potential bidders Carlyle Group and Providence Equity Partners Ltd, over a possible joint bid. Providence and Carlyle are said to have lined up a syndicate of banks led by JPMorgan Chase & Co., but to have raised less debt than they had originally hoped, according to the UK's Telegraph. The paper says the Dubai World Trade Centre, which is backed by the Investment Corporation of Dubai, is also in the talks.

Web site: www.tmnplc.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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