1st Half 2021 Media & Marketing Industry Trends

1ST HALF 2021 KEY HIGHLIGHTS

The largest transaction in 1st Half 2021 was Amazon’s announced acquisition of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Studios, an entertainment company focused on the production and global distribution of film and television content, for $10.27 billion.

Two of the industry’s top three highest value deals year-to-date were education related: Platinum Equity’s announced acquisition of McGraw-Hill, a learning company that offers digital educational content and assessment solutions, for $6.39 billion; and Clarivate’s announced acquisition of ProQuest, which provides data and analytics to academic, research, and national institutions, for $5.32 billion.

There were 95 financially sponsored transactions with an aggregate value of $26.55 billion, representing 16 percent of the total volume and 39 percent of the total value, respectively.

1ST HALF 2021 KEY TRENDS

Total transaction volume in 1st Half 2021 remained nearly constant over 2nd Half 2020, from 577 to 578.

Total transaction value in 1st Half 2021 increased by 16 percent over 2nd Half 2021, from $58.81 billion to $68.08 billion.

The median revenue multiple from 2nd Half 2020 to 1st Half 2021 stayed the same at 2.7x. The median EBITDA multiple during this timeframe fell from 13.3x to 9.7x, returning to its 1st Half 2020 level.

The segment with the largest rise in volume in 1st Half 2021 over 2nd Half 2020 was Marketing with an 18 percent gain, from 165 to 195 transactions.

M&A MARKET OVERVIEW

Berkery Noyes tracked 3,369 Media and Marketing transactions between 2019 and 1st Half 2021, of which 607 disclosed financial terms, and calculated the aggregate transaction value to be $224.64 billion. Based on known transaction values, we project values of 2,762 undisclosed transactions to be $53.09 billion, totaling $277.73 billion worth of transactions tracked over the past two and a half years.

Transactions from 1st Half 2019 to 1st Half 2021 with enterprise values above $160 million received a median revenue multiple of 3.9x, whereas those in the $10-160 million range garnered a median revenue multiple of 2.3x.