The purpose of the Media Acquisition Report is to uncover the macro M&A trends among trade buyers and private equity (PE) firms in the Media sector. The outputs give potential sellers a set of guidelines and benchmarks, and a sense check on acquisition criteria and valuation ranges.
The report is presented by Collingwood in partnership with Plural Strategy Group.
The media market is defined as business information, memberships, publishing, marketing services, and events.
Despite a slow down in the volume of transactions, Media valuations have held up well over the last 12 months of trading, particularly for assets that are able to display strong recurring revenues, resilience, revenue diversification, scalable operating models and high quality of earnings.
In addition, the acceleration in audience and sponsor appetite for live events has underpinned strong and in some recent cases market-leading valuations.
Whilst there are high levels of competition for quality assets, those that are perceived to be number 2 or 3 in their markets have struggled to transact. A common theme among respondents was a ‘flight to quality’, and overall a higher bar for transaction approval.
There is a level of cautious optimism around the macro factors which can impact M&A activity, as buyers look ahead to 2024.
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