The Financial Times has taken a majority stake in B2B biopharmaceutical website Endpoints News.
The FT said the acquisition marks a “significant milestone” in its expansion into the US and deepens its coverage of the biopharmaceutical sector. It also brings the subscription-based business a further 163,000 subscribers into the mix.
FT chief executive John Ridding said: “We’re thrilled to invest in Endpoints, a fast-growing business with a robust reputation for delivering quality news to audiences across the biopharma ecosystem.
“There is strong alignment between Endpoints and the FT in terms of mission, business model and focus on reader revenues. This acquisition also supports our ambitions to reach new audiences in innovative sectors and grow our footprint in the US.”
Endpoints News launched seven years ago and now produces a daily news website on the sector and runs in-person and online events.
Its publisher and co-founder Arsalan Arif said the FT was “the right partner to take our business to the next phase of growth”, adding: “Joining the Financial Times helps us reach even more subscribers, grow revenue, and invest in the journalism that’s made Endpoints a daily habit for biopharma professionals.”
Its editor and co-founder John Carroll added that the two brands “share a set of values about specialty publishing and the integrity of our work in a fiercely independent organisation”.
Both Arif and Carroll will continue with the business as chief executive and editor-in-chief respectively, with significant minority interests.
The FT said the investment was part of a corporate strategy that has seen it “diversify its business in strategic areas” including by buying the product and consulting arms of economic development consulting firm Wavteq last month, acquiring a majority stake in Dutch media firm The Next Web in 2019, and taking a controlling stake of content production studio Alpha Grid in 2016.
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