Times Higher Education has completed the acquisition of Poets&Quants, the leading provider of news and resources for prospective graduate business students worldwide.
The deal – the latest in a series of high-profile acquisitions for the company – significantly expands THE’s offering in the business education sector, where P&Q reaches more than 85 per cent of the MBA applicant market for the world’s top 100 business schools.
P&Q, meanwhile, is expected to grow its international audience and to develop new data tools, resources and events for the business education sector.
Founded in 2010 by John Byrne, a former executive editor of Business Week, P&Q offers news, rankings and events to help people make informed decisions about their MBA.
THE is acquiring its parent company, C-Change Media, along with sister sites Poets&Quants For Execs, covering the executive MBA and executive education market, and Poets&Quants For Undergrads, covering the undergraduate business school market.
Mr Byrne described the acquisition as a “match made in heaven”.
“We’ll be joining a news and data-gathering organisation that deeply understands the higher education market. With THE’s additional resources, we’ll be able to vastly extend our reach around the world and expand our current offerings for both our readers and clients,” he said.
P&Q will join a stable that, alongside THE, includes US-based news provider Inside Higher Ed, which was acquired in January 2022. Between them, THE and Inside Higher Ed reach combined audiences of more than 50 million academics, higher education professionals and students annually.
To accelerate THE’s plans for the business education sector, Josh Macht, a former publisher, chief product and innovation officer and acting chief executive of Harvard Business Review, is joining the company board as a non-executive director.
Paul Howarth, THE’s chief executive, said that P&Q was an “ideal acquisition”.
“I’m really excited about what we can do together to grow in the business education market,” Mr Howarth said. “With our recent acquisitions and organic growth, we’re fulfilling our mission to support and enable universities across the world to excel.”
Owned by Inflexion Private Equity, THE is headquartered in London, with offices in Australia, the US and Singapore. Alongside THE magazine and website, its influential university rankings, and global events series, THE works with clients across data, consultancy and hiring services.
Other recent THE acquisitions include dataHE, the rapidly growing provider of code-based data analysis for UK universities, and BMI, the leading organiser of international student recruitment events.
