Over 180 Technology M&A Transactions since 1998
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Charlotte, NC; December 7, 2015 — DecisionPoint, a leader in M&A advisory services for middle-market technology companies, announced today that its client, Virtual Event Bags, an industry pioneer for virtual event bag software, has been acquired by ACTIVE Network, the premier global marketplace for activities and events and the industry’s leading provider of data solutions.
Virtual Event Bags is and has created a highly scalable technology platform to help activity organizers more effectively connect sponsors with participants through a customized, mobile-responsive micro-site that serves as a central hub for sponsor and exhibitor messaging. This acquisition marks another key step in ACTIVE’s strategy of providing organizers technology and data insights to differentiate their events and grow participation, while enhancing the participant’s experience.
“ACTIVE’s strategic acquisition of Virtual Event Bags reaffirms our commitment to delivering a powerful, comprehensive event management and data insights platform that helps our customers across all markets reach their full commercial potential,” said Darko Dejanovic, chief executive officer at ACTIVE Network. “Virtual Event Bags offers activity organizers a cost-effective way to increase engagement with participants and drive incremental revenue through sponsorships. We’re happy to have Virtual Event Bags join ACTIVE on our journey to support organizers at every stage of the activity lifecycle.”
Virtual Event Bags helps organizers manage sponsors and provides organizers, sponsors and participants a more convenient way to distribute and access valuable merchandise offers compared to onsite physical gift bags. Virtual Event Bags makes it easier for organizers to find new sponsors, engage with participants and access data insights. Integrating Virtual Event Bags’ technology into the ACTIVE portfolio enables ACTIVE to offer a fully integrated, comprehensive solution that further helps organizers connect with participants throughout the event lifecycle. For the endurance industry, ACTIVE now delivers event management, data insights, timing, and virtual event bags together in a robust, one-stop-shop solution.
“We are excited to join the ACTIVE Network team and add Virtual Event Bags to their suite of technology and data insights solutions,” said Gary Schwake, president and co-founder of Virtual Event Bags. “The integration of Virtual Event Bags with ACTIVE allows us the opportunity to continue what we started while taking the solution’s growth and scale to significantly higher levels. It also gives organizers an opportunity to interact with and connect participants to their sponsors as well as national brands in an affordable and measurable way. ACTIVE’s brands partners will now have another channel for increasing brand awareness and exposure. Nearly 2.5 million participants received a virtual event bag this year. This integration of Virtual Event Bags with ACTIVE is good news for organizers, participants and brands.”
“We enjoyed working with the Virtual Event Bags team on this transaction and are excited for their opportunity to further scale their technology and product vision as a part of such a great company like ACTIVE. It is rewarding when such a good strategic combination comes together,” said Tom Wilson, managing partner at DecisionPoint.
The Virtual Event Bags platform will integrate with ACTIVEWorks and ACTIVE Network Activity Cloud to give organizers deeper and more comprehensive insights including participant trends and behavior from pre-registration through post-event. Participant visits, views, and engagement levels will be compiled into a dashboard-style detailed report to help organizers extend the value of the event and improve ROI for partners and sponsors. Organizers will also have access to content and promotions from national brands, increasing the availability of discounts and offers for their participants.
About Virtual Event Bags
Virtual Event Bags is the leading virtual event bag platform created to help event organizers more effectively connect their event sponsors with their participants. Through a customized, mobile responsive, micro-website Virtual Event Bags effectively delivers sponsor and event-related content to attendees before, during and after the event. Our online software platform simplifies the process of creating, sharing and reporting on this content for event organizers. Founded in 2010, Virtual Event Bags has helped events distribute over 9 million bags for over 1,000 customers in North America, Australia, Europe, and Africa. For more information, please visit www.virtualeventbags.com.
About ACTIVE Network
ACTIVE Network is the leading global marketplace for activities and events, connecting participants and activity organizers, while offering unparalleled business intelligence through our industry-leading data solutions and insights platform that helps organizers drive increased participation and revenue. ACTIVE Network annually processes nearly 100 million registrations and more than $3B in payments for over 47,000 organizers and 200,000 activities and events worldwide. Founded in 1999, ACTIVE Network is headquartered in Dallas, Texas with offices throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. For more information, please visit ACTIVEnetwork.com.
About DecisionPoint
DecisionPoint is a unique leader in M&A advisory services for middle-market technology companies and their venture capital investors in the software, services, cleantech, biotech, healthcare IT and communication sectors. For additional information on DecisionPoint, visit www.DecisionPointINT.com.
For further information, contact: Tom Wilson, Managing Partner; (704) 248-1124; twilson@decisionpointint.com.