How Apollo chose to integrate two platform companies at once
Most sponsors buy a platform and add smaller companies to it. This was a simultaneous platform build instead. Apollo agreed to buy two platforms on the same day and set out to integrate two platform companies into one. In May 2026, Apollo funds agreed to buy Emerald Holding, a listed US trade show operator, and Questex, a smaller, privately held events and media company.
The deals closed on July 14, 2026. Questex CEO Paul Miller became CEO of the combined business, and Emerald CEO Hervé Sedky became a senior advisor. On August 19, the company took a new name, Forge.
The bigger company did not set the operating model. This case looks at why, what Forge has done since, and the decisions any sponsor should make before Day 1.
What Apollo bought: one sale process, two deals
Emerald ran a full sale process. Its advisor, Goldman Sachs, contacted about 52 strategic and private equity buyers from July to December 2025, and 11 signed confidentiality agreements, according to Emerald’s information statement.
Figure 1. Emerald ran a broad auction; Questex was a separate, private deal. Source: Emerald information statement; Apollo releases.Apollo agreed to pay $5.03 a share in cash, an enterprise value of about $1.5 billion and a 42.1% premium to the price before Emerald said it was weighing options. On Emerald’s 2025 adjusted EBITDA of $127.1 million, that is about 11.8 times.
Onex, which held about 93% of the votes, approved the merger by written consent the day it was signed. Apollo funds committed $760 million of equity. Questex was bought from MidOcean Partners in a separate all-cash deal at an undisclosed price, and its closing was not a condition of the Emerald merger.
That last detail matters. Apollo bought the option to combine, not a single merged business. When you plan to integrate two platform companies, the acquisition strategy has to work even if one deal slips.
Why the smaller company set the operating model
Emerald was bigger, but its 2025 results show where its growth came from. Revenue rose 16.2% to $463.4 million, but organic growth was 1.1%. The rest came mainly from acquisitions such as This is Beyond, Generis and Insurtech Insights.
Figure 2. Emerald had scale but little organic growth, and most of its revenue came from live events. Source: Emerald Q4 and FY2025 results.About 91% of Emerald’s revenue came from Connections, its live events. Its content and commerce businesses brought in $40.3 million. Most of its revenue came from shows that happen once a year.
Under MidOcean Partners, Questex built the opposite model. MidOcean says it more than doubled the company’s scale, completed seven add-on acquisitions and built an audience of over 6 million professionals across events, digital media and data.
Apollo’s own announcement named the thesis: Emerald’s exhibitions plus Questex’s “365-day digital engagement model.” If the plan is to sell year-round engagement, the people who built it should run it. That is Xpertegic’s reading of the public record, not a stated Apollo policy.
Leadership was the first integration decision
When you integrate two platform companies, the org chart is the operating model in its first visible form. Apollo announced the top team at close and said the two companies would be fully integrated “over the coming months.”
Figure 3. Questex holds the CEO and commercial seats; finance and the portfolios draw on both companies and beyond. Source: Apollo; Forge; TSNN; Emerald.The commercial seats went to Questex: Miller as CEO and Kate Spellman as chief commercial officer. Finance went to Emerald, with former chief accounting officer Vince DiMaggio as CFO. Each company kept something that mattered to it, which is how a combination avoids feeling like a takeover.
On September 24, Forge organized into four market portfolios, each run by a group president reporting to Miller. One came from Emerald, one from Questex and one from the newly acquired Becker’s Healthcare; the fourth is a former managing partner of Lodestone Events.
Leadership choices like these are where HR due diligence pays off before close and HR integration holds the line after it. They also decide whether culture becomes the reason integration fails.
Pick the operating model first. The org chart, the systems and the brand all follow from it.
What it takes to integrate two platform companies on the revenue side
Cost savings are the easy part: one finance team, one set of venue and vendor contracts, one technology stack in time. The thesis lives on the revenue side, in revenue synergies that take longer to prove.
An Emerald salesperson sells a booth at one annual show. The Forge model asks that person to sell sponsorships, digital media and year-round audience access, often to a different budget holder at the same customer. That needs new compensation plans, clear account ownership and one customer record.
Before close, commercial due diligence should test how many exhibitors also buy digital media. IT due diligence should map the two customer databases. After close, go-to-market integration has to make the cross-sell real.
Forge’s first brand decision lowered that risk. The event and media brands keep their existing names, so customers who buy KBIS or Fierce Pharma see no change. At CEDIA Expo in September, Miller told attendees, “This is not the last CEDIA Expo.”
Ten weeks in: the first add-on
On September 22, 2026, Forge agreed to buy Becker’s Healthcare from Pamlico Capital. Becker’s adds 16 annual conferences and more than a dozen digital publications for hospital and health system leaders, and joins Questex’s Fierce healthcare and life sciences brands.
The price was not disclosed. A Media Operator reported, citing people familiar with the deal, a value of more than $500 million, or over 10 times EBITDA. Becker’s CEO Jessica Cole now runs Forge’s healthcare portfolio.
So the first add-on arrived before the two platforms were fully combined. Adding a third business while you integrate two platform companies is ambitious. It works only if the integration office can absorb a third business without stalling the first two, and a 100-day plan that already sequences the work is what makes that possible.
Five decisions to make before you integrate two platform companies
The core lesson: when you buy two platforms at once, the operating model you need, not the bigger balance sheet, should decide who leads.
The public record shows the order in which Apollo made its calls. Here is that order as a decision log any sponsor can reuse when it has to integrate two platform companies.
| Decision | Apollo’s choice | When | What to copy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Deal structure | Two separate deals; Questex not a condition of the Emerald merger | Signing, May 2026 | Make each deal stand on its own |
| 2. Operating model | Questex’s year-round model across Emerald’s scale | Announcement, May 2026 | Name the model before you pick the leaders |
| 3. Leadership | Questex CEO and commercial chief; Emerald finance chief | Close, July 2026 | Announce the top team on Day 1 |
| 4. Brand | New parent name; customer brands unchanged | Day 36, August 2026 | Change the corporate name, not the customer’s |
| 5. Structure and add-ons | Four market portfolios; Becker’s acquired | Days 70-72, September 2026 | Organize around markets before adding more |
Each row is a question for buy-side diligence before signing and a milestone for post-merger integration after close. Together they are what a repeatable M&A capability looks like in practice.
The verdict is still open. Forge has published no combined financials or revenue synergy targets, and the cross-sell has not been tested in a full year of shows. The Walgreens VillageMD case shows what happens when the next deal arrives before the first one is proven.
Size tells you who to buy. The operating model tells you who should run it.
For emerging managers: The Charter Program
Apollo named a full leadership team on the day the deals closed. A Fund I, II or III manager building a platform rarely has corporate development or integration staff in house, and hiring both is expensive long before the third add-on.
The Charter Program is built for that gap: build the capabilities of a larger private equity firm without building the cost structure of one.
Origination carries no monthly retainer; Xpertegic earns a success fee at close and reinvests 10-20% of that fee into the platform. Diligence and integration are scoped and billed separately. Three managers are admitted in year one, starting with a pre-application.
Sources
- Apollo, Apollo Funds to acquire Emerald and Questex to create leading North American B2B events platform, May 11, 2026
- MidOcean Partners, MidOcean Partners signs definitive agreement to exit Questex, May 11, 2026
- Emerald Holding, Fourth quarter and full year 2025 results presentation, March 2026
- Emerald Holding, Information statement (DEFM14C), June 2026
- Apollo, Apollo Funds complete acquisitions of Emerald and Questex, July 14, 2026
- Forge, Emerald and Questex unite as Forge, August 19, 2026
- Residential Systems, Forge CEO looks forward to new opportunities, September 4, 2026
- Holland & Knight, Holland & Knight advises Pamlico Capital in sale of Becker’s, September 23, 2026
- TSNN, Forge names four group presidents to lead market-focused growth strategy, September 24, 2026
- A Media Operator, Becker’s Healthcare said to be valued at $500M-plus in Forge deal, September 25, 2026
