1st Half 2019 Media & Marketing Industry Trends

1ST HALF 2019 KEY HIGHLIGHTS

The largest deal in 1st Half 2019 was Sinclair Broadcast Group’s announced acquisition of 22 Fox regional sports networks from Disney for $10.6 billion. Of note, Disney was required to sell its regional sports networks in order to obtain regulatory approval for its acquisition of 21st Century Fox’s entertainment division for $66.1 billion.

There were 131 financially sponsored transactions with an aggregate value of $8.77 billion, representing 16 percent of the total volume and 21 percent of the total value, respectively.

1ST HALF 2019 KEY TRENDS

Total transaction volume in 1st Half 2019 declined by three percent over 2nd Half 2018, from 833 to 807.

Total transaction value in 1st Half 2019 fell by 22 percent over 2nd Half 2018, from $53.32 billion to $41.74 billion.                

The median revenue multiple moved downward from 2.4x in 2nd Half 2017 to 2.0x in 1st Half 2019. The median EBITDA multiple during this timeframe decreased from 10.4x to 8.4x.

The segment with the largest rise in volume in 1st Half 2019 over 2nd Half 2018 was Broadcasting which more than doubled, from 23 to 50 transactions.

M&A MARKET OVERVIEW

Berkery Noyes tracked 4,343 Media and Marketing transactions between 2017 and 1st Half 2019, of which 900 disclosed financial terms, and calculated the aggregate transaction value to be $259.96 billion. Based on known transaction values, we project values of 3,443 undisclosed transactions to be $48.48 billion, totaling $308.44 billion worth of transactions tracked over the past two and a half years.

Transactions from 1st Half 2017 to 1st Half 2019 with enterprise values above $80 million received a median revenue multiple of 3.1x, whereas those in the $20-$80 million range garnered a median revenue multiple of 2.0x and those in the $10-$20 million range had a median revenue multiple of 1.2x.

Disclosed median enterprise value multiples for all segments combined in this report during the last 30 months were 1.7x revenue and 9.9x EBITDA.