Ziff Davis has reached an agreement to sell its Connectivity division to Accenture for $1.2 billion in cash. The portfolio being transferred includes Ookla’s Speedtest application and the Downdetector service that tracks outages, together with Ekahau and RootMetrics.
The company said the transaction will allow it to concentrate resources on its core media properties, naming enthusiast sites such as IGN and Mashable alongside Everyday Health as focal points going forward. Market reaction to the announcement was sharp for Ziff Davis equity, which rose by more than 60% in early trading, while Accenture shares were effectively unchanged.
Ziff Davis framed the sale as a continuation of a streamlining effort initiated under CEO Vivek Shah in 2017, citing prior portfolio moves such as the 2021 spin-off of Consensus Cloud. Management indicated that proceeds from the sale will be used for general corporate purposes and capital allocation activities, in a manner consistent with the company’s debt agreements.
The Connectivity unit has grown organically from earlier acquisitions, including the purchase of Ookla in 2014 and the acquisition of RootMetrics in 2021. The business benefited from secular trends such as the global rollout of 5G and a pandemic-related increase in bandwidth consumption, producing $231 million in revenue last year, equivalent to roughly 16% of Ziff Davis’ total revenue.
Commenting on the acquisition, Manish Sharma, Accenture’s chief strategy and services officer, said the Ookla portfolio will enable the firm to provide end-to-end network intelligence services that are important for AI-based transformation.
The parties expect the deal to close within the coming months. During the interim period, Ziff Davis will continue to operate the Connectivity unit. Financial and legal advisers on the transaction were Evercore and Citi for Ziff Davis, with Kirkland & Ellis serving as legal counsel.
Contextual note: The company and buyer have outlined the anticipated uses of proceeds and the continuity plan for operations up to deal closure, but timing and completion remain pending as the transaction moves toward closing.