2013-04-08 Berkery Noyes Releases Media and Marketing Industry M&A Report For First Quarter 2013
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NEW YORK — April 8, 2013 — Berkery Noyes, an independent mid-market investment bank, today released its Q1 2013 mergers and acquisitions trend report for the Media and Marketing Industry. The report analyzes M&A activity in the Media and Marketing Industry during Q1 2013 and compares it with the past four quarters.
According to Berkery Noyes’ latest research, transaction volume remained relatively constant over the past three months, rising two percent compared to Q4 2012. However, volume in Q1 2013 was down 13 percent relative to Q1 2012.
Deal value showed a decline of 68 percent, from $25.6 billion in Q4 2012 to $8.2 billion in Q1 2013. Eight of the top ten largest acquisitions in 2012 occurred in either the third or fourth quarter, which contributed to this steep quarterly value decrease. When contrasted with Q1 2012, the industry’s aggregate value decreased 30 percent.
Transaction volume in the B2B Publishing segment increased ten percent on a quarter-to-quarter basis. The largest deal in the B2B segment and the overall industry year-to-date was CVC Capital Partners’ $1.5 billion acquisition of corporate information database Cerved Group SpA. M&A in the Consumer Publishing segment, after increasing 67 percent in Q4 2012, fell 13 percent in Q1 2013. One of the largest Consumer Publishing transactions was NC2 Media’s acquisition of travel guide publisher Lonely Planet for $62 million. Meanwhile, Berkshire Hathaway was active in the segment during Q1 2013, acquiring Tulsa World and The News & Record.
Regarding the Internet Media segment, deal flow decreased six percent in Q1 2013. This was equivalent to the segment’s Q1 2012 level. One new Internet Media acquirer during Q1 2013 was Pinterest. The social networking site acquired Punchfork, a social culinary website, within the segment. This was the company’s first acquisition since its launch in 2010. Other Internet Media transactions by noteworthy acquirers were Amazon.com’s acquisition of book recommendation site Goodreads, Facebook’s acquisition of blogging website Storylane, and AOL’s acquisition of tech review website gdgt.
M&A in the Entertainment Content segment increased 13 percent in Q1 2013. The largest deal in the Entertainment segment was Warner Music Group’s acquisition of Parlophone Label Group for $767 million. On a similar note, one of the highest value transactions in the Exhibitions, Conferences, and Seminars segment was entertainment related. This consisted of SFX Entertainment’s acquisition of ID&T, a producer of dance music events, for $102 million.
As for the industry’s Marketing segment, transaction volume increased eight percent in Q1 2013. This rise came in the aftermath of a 19 percent decline between Q3 2012 and Q4 2012. Content marketing is one key trend driving innovation in the digital subsector, as is the growing emphasis being placed on experiential marketing solutions.
“We expect to continue seeing an ongoing shift in advertising spend from print-based to digital media,” stated Mary Jo Zandy, Managing Director at Berkery Noyes. “One of the ultimate goals of doing so is to improve the lead generation process through greater personalization, more targeted messaging, and better measurement of the end results.”
A copy of the MEDIA AND MARKETING INDUSTRY M&A REPORT FOR FIRST QUARTER 2013 is available at the Berkery Noyes website.