History
Informa's oldest business started in 1734 when Lloyd's List, now one of the world's oldest continuously running journals, began covering London shipping news.
Informa itself was created in 1998 by the merger of IBC Group plc and LLP Group plc. Since then Informa has expanded considerably, including a 2004 merger with the publishing company Taylor & Francis and a 2005 acquisition of IIR Holdings, a human capital development company, for £768 million. In October 2006, the company was approached by Springer Science and Business Media in a takeover bid, but in early November the Informa board rejected the 630p per share offer as too low.
In early 2007, chairman Richard Hooper announced his retirement in May and, after consulting with major shareholders, the company moved chief executive Peter Rigby to chairman, and managing director David Gilbertson to Rigby's former post. Informa explained Rigby's move by the need to maintain management stability, although it generated some controversy because it did not follow the advice of the UK's Combined Code on Corporate Governance.
On 8 June 2008, The Sunday Telegraph revealed that United Business Media (UBM) had proposed a merger with Informa to create a media group worth over £3 billion. The talks were confirmed by Informa in a press release that same day, but described as "preliminary". Previously on May 13 The Times had reported that the Carlyle Group and Apax Partners were considering bidding for the company. On June 17 talks with UBM ended because of the rapid rise in Informa's stock price after the public disclosure of the potential merger. On June 26 a private equity consortium consisting of Providence Equity Partners, the Carlyle Group and Hellman & Friedman proposed a takeover bid offering 506 pence per share.
On 1 May 2009 the company announced that it would be restructure its business so it was incorporated in Jersey but tax resident in Switzerland.
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