Patrick J. McGovern, founder of US-based IT media corporation International Data Group (IDG) and its corporate venturing unit, IDG Ventures, has died aged 76.
Born on August 11, 1937, in Queens, New York, McGovern graduated from MIT in 1959 with a degree in biophysics before founding International Data Corporation in 1964 to track statistics on the information technology market. Before long he had launched other computing titles and incorporated them into a new company, International Data Group.
IDG has since launched more than 300 magazines and newspapers, as well as 450 websites across the world, and has distinguished itself by being unafraid to expand internationally. IDG began publishing a Japanese title, Shukan Computer, in 1972 and in 1980 initiated one of the first joint ventures between a US and a China-based business. Its media brands have stretched to 97 countries and its technology-focused events business to 67.
This attitude would be reflected in IDG’s corporate venturing activities. McGovern founded IDGVC, China’s first venture capital firm, in 1993, and it has since grown to become the largest in the country, with more than $3bn under management. He followed that by establishing IDG’s own corporate venturing unit, IDG Ventures, in 1996.
As IDG has grown into the world’s largest IT media company, IDG Ventures has expanded to become a family of funds spanning China, India, Korea and Vietnam, with about $3.6bn under management and investments in more than 220 countries. Its portfolio has at different times included Netscape, Tudou.com, LivingSocial and VA Linux Systems, which went public priced at $30 per share before closing at $239 at the end of the first day of trading – the most successful initial public offering of all-time until 2005.
McGovern is survived by his wife, Lore Harp McGovern, son Patrick, daughter Elizabeth, two stepdaughters, Michelle Bethel and Dina Jackson, and nine grandchildren. He will be missed but his legacy, both in media, where he changed the face of information provision, and in corporate venturing, will live on.
Photo of Patrick Mcgovern courtesy of IDG