Earlier this month the International Franchise Association completed an acquisition of one of its largest members and competitors, scaling up its meetings, membership, and advocacy strategies.

The finalized acquisition, announced July 1, formally brings the company Franchise Update Media into the IFA fold, though Franchise Update Media will keep its name and brand identity. According to IFA President and CEO Matt Haller, the two organizations have had a long history of partnerships, most recently after the COVID-19 pandemic, when they established a joint venture around a pair of industry conferences. The two organizations announced their intent to combine forces in September 2024.

“We were doing a development conference and a marketing conference, and they were doing a development conference and a marketing conference,” he said. “We asked, why don’t we see what it would look like to combine forces and do two events rather than four events that competed with one another?”

Haller said that as it became clearer that Franchise Update Media’s owners were exploring potential buyers for the company, it made more sense for IFA to pursue an acquisition. That was both to avoid a new competitor for conference business, and to expand its audience. “Our bread has been buttered by the brands and by suppliers in terms of revenue and who we represent, but we have franchisees involved,” he said. “That’s not been the primary focus for IFA in the past.”

More specifically, Franchise Update Media had close ties to multi-unit, multi-brand owners—”mumbos” in industry parlance—which represent a lucrative customer group for IFA. “Those 800 to 1,000 mumbos who come to the multi-unit franchising conferences are the big fish that most franchisors are looking to bring in,” Haller said.

The acquisition also gives IFA a larger editorial team, which can assist with content, promotions, and advocacy. “They have a whole team of writers and editors,” he said. “We do a lot of promotion with research and earned media around government relations and public policy issues, but less so around storytelling…  This allows us to scale in terms of messaging, to educate the public, and indirectly, policymakers, about the franchise model and what makes it successful.”

According to a release, the acquisition allows IFA to double its monthly website visitors, expansion of publication readership, an additional 3,500 event attendees, and a doubling of event exhibitors. But Haller notes that the process required 18 months of discussions and legal parsing before it was finalized. Just as important, it required extended conversations around cultural fit. 

“Everything starts with culture and finding and the relationship,” he said. “This conversation with [Franchise Update Media owners] Therese Thilgen and Gary Gardner actually went back three predecessors before mine… And those previous attempts at an acquisition by IFA were, in Gary’s words, much more hostile in nature, and less collaborative. Now the conversation was about, how can this be a win for both organizations? The relationship side of this is probably more important than anything.”