IDG Commmunications acquires B2B demand generation platform Selling Simplified

IDG Communications has acquired Selling Simplified, a marketing-as-a-service platform that provides lead generation products, data services and analytics.

Existing Selling Simplified customers include Juniper Networks, MediaCom, Marketo, and Just Global. Selling Simplified operates globally, with 285 employees across four continents. Around 70% of this headcount is based in APAC. 

According to a company statement, IDG acquired Selling Simplified for two reasons. First, a global dataset of over 160 million B2B records, which can be added to IDG’s existing proprietary audience, creating what it claims is "the world’s largest addressable database of in-market tech decision-makers and influencers." Second, IDG gets access to a martech platform that identifies the most valuable contacts for sales outreach or continued leads to be nurtured.

The acquisition of Selling Simplified allows IDG to add contact and account-level lead generation capabilities to its existing intent-based marketing technologies.

“Segmenting an audience by job title and role in the purchase decision is no longer sufficient at generating sales leads," said Kumaran Ramanathan, president of IDG Communications. "Marketing campaigns simply perform better when you can also apply knowledge of the prospect’s current stage in the path-to-purchase and actively engage them.”

Selling Simplified is the latest in a series of acquisitions IDG has made over the last 18 months. The IDG Communications martech stack includes an ABM platform, Triblio; a marketing data and intelligence solution, KickFire; and a B2B sales and marketing data intent platform, LeadSift. In the last few years, IDG, which began as a media publisher, has evolved its network of editorial brands to include an integrated marketing and lead generation technology platform.