Ovum and Informa Telecoms & Media Research complete merger; creating a top-tier telecoms, media & IT research firm

London, August 4th, 2014

  • The world’s largest telecoms industry research firm
  • One of four top-tier technology research and advisory firms globally
  • 180 analysts, located in 23 offices, across six continents
  • The most comprehensive portfolio of research, data products, and consulting services across telecoms, media, and IT
  • Offering 34 research channels including 23 new or improved areas of focus

Ovum and Informa Telecoms & Media research (ITM) announce today the completion of the merger of the two companies under the Ovum brand. The merger creates the leading analyst firm for telecoms research and fourth largest technology research firm globally, providing the most comprehensive research view across the converging worlds of IT, telecoms, and media.

Since the announcement of the merger plan on April 7, 2014, the two companies have brought together all the analysts and consulting teams and combined all the content from both companies onto a new mobile-optimized, online delivery platform, delivering 34 research channels and 36 data tools.

The new company has also launched new research products: Digital Media, Music, Telecoms IT, Enterprise Technology, Enterprise Mobility, and Customer Engagement.

Over the coming weeks, Ovum will be delivering new research in convergent technology areas as a result of the merger, such as telecoms IT spending forecasts, M2M forecasts, and monetizing telco Big Data.

Steve Hotham, previously Managing Director of Ovum, is now CEO of the combined company and is supported by a new management team, consisting of senior directors from both ITM Research and Ovum. These include:

  • Ian Charlesworth, Managing Director – IT Research
  • Tim Jennings, Chief Research Officer, IT
  • Martin Hill, Managing Director – Telecoms, Media & Entertainment Research
  • Mark Newman, Chief Research Officer, Telecoms, Media & Entertainment

Steve Hotham believes that the combination of the two companies represents a new force in the technology industry research market and commented;

“This merger combines two highly complementary businesses that together now provide our customers with superior and comprehensive research, data, and consulting services globally to meet the increased strategic challenges of the converging technology market. We do not believe any other analyst firm provides such inclusive coverage of the IT, Telecoms and Media markets as Ovum.”

The newly merged company will be an important part of Informa’s Business Intelligence division which has also just announced a re-structuring and will see Patrick Martell, formerly of St Ives Group, take over as CEO.