Purch Acquires AnandTech, Dominates Tech Expert and Enthusiast Market
Leading content and commerce company adds respected mobile, computing, and IT reviews site to its brand portfolio
NEW YORK, NY (December 17, 2014) – Purch today announced the acquisition of AnandTech.com, a leader in mobile, computing and IT analysis and reviews. Purch’s industry-leading combination of high-quality content and integrated commerce experiences makes complex buying decisions easy for more than 100 million consumers and professionals monthly. With the acquisition of AnandTech, Purch furthers its mission to simplify purchase decisions for in-market tech consumers by adding one of the most popular computer components, hardware, and mobile reviews sites to a brand portfolio that already includes category heavyweight, Tom’s Hardware.
AnandTech has been at the forefront of the technological evolution, providing groundbreaking reviews and trend coverage of cutting-edge mobile and computing products since Anand Shimpi, one of the tech industry’s most authoritative and respected figures, founded it in 1997 at age 14.
“AnandTech has grown by leaps and bounds over the past several years, but we were nearing what’s possible as an independent company,” said Ryan Smith, editor-in-chief, AnandTech. “The challenge has always been that there are very few players in the publishing space these days who value deep, high-quality content. We wanted a partner that understood our values, had a sound business model to ensure AnandTech’s legacy would continue for years to come, and would allow us to grow and expand our readership without compromising the quality that made us who were are today. Purch provides all of these things. I am beyond excited about what we’ll be able to do with their support.”
“The addition of AnandTech to a brand portfolio that includes Tom’s Hardware, Tom’s Guide, and Top Ten Reviews unquestionably establishes Purch as the dominant provider of in-depth, quality technology content, serving technology buyers who want to ensure the value of their potential investments,” said Greg Mason, CEO, Purch. “Technology manufacturers, too, can be assured that their messages will reach any serious buyer. The two editorial teams represent the finest, most expert group of content talent in the technology space. ”
“AnandTech represents much of my life’s work over the past 18 years,” said Anand Shimpi, founder, AnandTech. “I am happy to see it end up with a partner committed to taking good care of the brand and its readers. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.”
Purch offers brands and advertisers unmatched reach to tens of millions of discerning in-market tech consumers and professionals each month. These tech “enthusiasts” look to the kind of detailed research, benchmark testing, and advice from category experts during their buying process for which Tom’s Hardware and AnandTech are known. Readers trust that advice because it is backed by nearly two decades of testing every mobile and PC component imaginable, and is supported by unprecedented input and guidance from the biggest, passionate community of like-minded enthusiasts.
Purch’s acquisition of AnandTech is the company’s most recent move in a series of strategic acquisitions and partnerships aimed at furthering its mission to ease complex buying decisions for shoppers and deliver branding and performance results to advertisers. In 2013, the company acquired the renowned “Tom’s” brand of tech media sites and, earlier this year, purchased BuyerZone, the leading online marketplace for SMB buyers and sellers. Purch’s ability to trigger buying decisions in an array of product categories is evidenced by the more than 7,000 marketers and sellers that come to Purch to connect with ready-to-buy consumers. Each year, Purch’s content-commerce combination drives more than one billion dollars in commerce transactions.
In addition to the acquisition, Purch is now the number one technology publisher in the U.S., [1] with a global readership of more than 100 million monthly unique visitors.
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
To find out more about Purch, visit www.purch.com or follow the company on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
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About Purch
Purch is a portfolio of digital brands and services that helps make complex buying decisions easy for 100 million consumers monthly. Its respected sites such as Top Ten Reviews, Tom’s Guide, Tom’s Hardware, and Live Science natively integrate commerce and content in more than 1000 product categories so consumers can make better choices before, during, and after an important purchase.
The company helps marketers achieve their branding and performance objectives in a high-quality, brand-safe context. Its sites connect in-market shoppers with more than 7,000 marketers and sellers, driving industry-leading conversion rates and $1 billion in commerce transactions annually.
Purch is a high-growth, privately held company with more than 350 employees and offices across the U.S. and Europe.
For more information on Purch, visit www.purch.com or follow the company on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
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[1] Source: comScore U.S. Media Metrix, Tech-News category ranking by unique visitors, PC audience, September 2014
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TheSlamma - Thursday, December 18, 2014 - link
This is exactly how I feel, Toms was a daily site for me in the late 90's.. and now it's not a consideration ever. Same thing happened to Firing Squad after thresh left. I think the guys here are doing a great job now, but the problem with companies like purch is they are filled with talking head management types who only care about bottom dollar and when they drive a good thing into the ground they flat out do not care.James5mith - Thursday, December 18, 2014 - link
My only complaint with Anandtech, and tech sites in general really in the last few years is the lack of editors. We have plenty of people writing articles, but nobody is proofreading them, fixing mistakes, reading them out loud back to the writer to realize they have abysmal grammar, etc. It's very jarring to read a high level review of some piece of technology, only to find spelling errors, grammar errors, and a lack of complete sentences sometimes. In the words of an old person "Back in my day, Anandtech actually proof read their articles before publishing!"Takamata - Thursday, December 18, 2014 - link
I agree. Deep professional analysis can suddenly seem amatatuer when the writing style is amateur.It doesn't happen all the time here, but I distinctly remember a few times being like "did anyone read this over before posting?"
Takamata - Thursday, December 18, 2014 - link
Yeah, I see the irony in my comment. That's what happens when you don't re-read. (Or when you type comment on iPhone on subway.)FlyTexas - Thursday, December 18, 2014 - link
No irony, you're not being paid to write a professional article, you're making a comment in the comments section, it is ok. If you were paid to write the main article, then yea, unacceptable.HardwareDufus - Thursday, December 18, 2014 - link
I saw that the feeds from DT were removed a few days back, so I knew some sort of announcement was imminent. I quite liked the AT/DT tie in..... But I can imagine corporate sponsors not wanting to invite Mick along for the ride. Pity.... I quite like Micks contributions... even if he does miss the mark a time or two.Murloc - Thursday, December 18, 2014 - link
yeah it did strike me as weird too. Now that DT clickbait isn't put under my noise anymore, I don't think I will go there on purpose to read Mick's rants anymore.FlyTexas - Thursday, December 18, 2014 - link
Jarred,Frankly, if you think there shouldn't be any changes in how you generate content with this new ownership, then you're in for a rude awakening...
I'm not questioning your moral integrity, I'm simply saying that it isn't personal, it is business. There is no way that the new owners are going to, long term, pay two teams to run the same tests on the same hardware in two locations. It is a waste of money.
You might get to write articles, but over time the "data sharing" will increase, you'll perhaps run half the tests, Tom's might run the other half, and you'll share the results and write something about it.
Or perhaps all the testing will get moved to one side or another with the testing results passed on.
Your new owners are a business, all the pretty words in the world don't change that, money rules large companies in the end.
Give it 6 to 12 months, then come back and say nothing has changed internally.
JarredWalton - Thursday, December 18, 2014 - link
I've met with people from THG plenty of times at events, and you know what? Their job sounds pretty much identical to my job. Shocking, I know. If you buy a profitable company to add their income to your revenue stream, but then you totally overhaul everything that made the company profitable, that's sort of an odd approach.We'll see I suppose, and given AT has always had a very small business feel to it (there's precious little oversight of what editors do, really), it wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing to have some changes. But if I'm told to start writing advertorials or whatever... well, I already get accused of that for having the audacity to write a guide recommending a variety of hardware, laptops, etc. Which is something I've done at AnandTech since the beginning, so really, nothing really changed. (See: http://www.anandtech.com/show/1518, which is probably one of the first five or so articles I wrote at AnandTech. Heck, we even had "weekly" buyers guides in the past.)
FlyTexas - Friday, December 19, 2014 - link
Yes, only time will tell...I will say that a smart new manager won't make large changes quickly, it is too jarring... You're very unlikely to be told to write "advertorials", rather you're likely to find a new managing editor who has a new role of "quality control" to improve the grammar and presentation of articles.
Professional news publications have these people, their job is to clean up the copy and make sure nothing really offensive goes out, while making sure the headlines are catchy. It is very easy to slowly edit articles via such a person by changing this or that... Sometimes it is easy to spot, sometimes it happens slowly over time...