Hyve Group, a global events business, agreed to acquire Retail Meetup, which produces digitally native events for the retail industry, for £28m. "We service three fundamental customer needs, bringing people together to learn, network and trade. Where in-person events provide an opportunity to accomplish all three of these objectives, up until now, digital events have broadly catered only to the 'learn' component focussing on online content. Retail Meetup turns this reality on its head, creating a first of its kind commercial proposition to bring the entire retail and grocery ecosystem together to network and trade at scale in a digital format. Digital hosted meetings have the proven potential to bring together thousands of decision makers over a short period of time in a format that delivers strong returns on both time and investment," Mark Shashoua, Hyve Group CEO.