1st Half 2020 Media & Marketing Industry Trends

1ST HALF 2020 KEY HIGHLIGHTS

Five of the industry’s top ten largest deals year-to-date occurred in the Internet Media segment. These five acquisitions, with a combined value of $9.69 billion, accounted for 41 percent of the industry’s total value in 1st Half 2020.

There were 83 financially sponsored transactions with an aggregate value of $5.51 billion, representing 13 percent of the total volume and 23 percent of the total value, respectively.

1ST HALF 2020 KEY TRENDS

Total transaction volume in 1st Half 2020 declined by 17 percent over 2nd Half 2019, from 766 to 632.

Total transaction value in 1st Half 2020 fell by 73 percent over 2nd Half 2019, from $87.34 billion to $23.92 billion. Of note, the value surge in 2nd Half 2019 was driven by two deals that reached the $20 billion threshold. Excluding these two deals, value remained about constant in 2nd Half 2019 and declined 42 percent in 1st Half 2020.

The median revenue multiple decreased from 2.5x in 2nd Half 2019 to 2.2x in 1st Half 2020. The median EBITDA multiple during this timeframe moved upward from 8.2x to 9.7x.

M&A MARKET OVERVIEW

Berkery Noyes tracked 3,882 Media and Marketing transactions between 2018 and 1st Half 2020, of which 707 disclosed financial terms, and calculated the aggregate transaction value to be $207.76 billion. Based on known transaction values, we project values of 3,175 undisclosed transactions to be $53.31 billion, totaling $261.06 billion worth of transactions tracked over the past two and a half years.

Transactions from 1st Half 2018 to 1st Half 2020 with enterprise values above $80 million received a median revenue multiple of 3.2x, whereas those in the $20-$80 million range garnered a median revenue multiple of 2.2x and those in the $10-$20 million range had a median revenue multiple of 1.4x.

Disclosed median enterprise value multiples for all segments combined in this report during the last 30 months were 2.1x revenue and 9.6x EBITDA.