In 2015, Winsight acquired Technomic, a provider of primary and secondary market information and advisory services to the food industry, as way to jumpstart a data and business intelligence service that could complement Winsight’s media and events properties.

Business-to-business information companies are scrambling to expand their revenue mix and reduce their vulnerability of being overly dependent on any one revenue stream. But when everyone has an events business, a marketing services business and fledgling paid content and data business, is recurring revenue emerging as the real king of valuations?

Randall-Reilly’s acquisition last week of Smart Rhino Labs, which offers recruiting services for the trucking industry and provides its new parent with a deeper level of lead gen and data capabilities, could be the first of several deals as Randall-Reilly looks to build out its portfolio thanks to a full war chest courtesy of private equity firm Aurora Capital, which purchased the publisher last year for a reported $230 million. “Last summer we went through a quick version of strategic planning and started lining up priority acquisitions,” Prescott Shibles, Senior Vice President of Data at Randall-Reilly, told Connectiv. “That’s why we didn’t buy anything right out of the gate with Aurora. Now, we’re open for businesses.” Randall Reilly is looking for four key elements from an acquisition according to Shibles: assets that provide complementary data sets; new capabilities that solve client pain points; businesses that bring in new cl ...