1st Half 2025 Media, Marketing, & Online Industry Trends

1ST HALF 2025 KEY HIGHLIGHTS

The largest transaction in 1st Half 2025 was Thoma Bravo’s announced acquisition of Boeing’s Digital Aviation Solutions, which includes Jeppesen, a provider of aviation data that aids flight navigation and improves operational safety, for $10.6 billion.

There were 81 financially sponsored transactions with an aggregate value of $27 billion, representing 17 percent of the total volume and 40 percent of the total value.

Two of the top ten notable transactions in 1st Half 2025 occurred in the food delivery space: Prosus N.V.’s announced acquisition of Just Eat Takeaway.com, a lead­ ing glob­ al online deliv­ ery mar­ ket­ place, for $4.6 billion; and DoorDash’s announced acquisition of Deliveroo, a food delivery company based in London, for $3.2 billion.

1ST HALF 2025 KEY TRENDS

Total transaction volume in 1st Half 2025 decreased by 6 percent over 2nd Half 2024, from 507 to 476.

Total transaction value increased 49 percent from $45.4 billion in 2nd Half 2024 to $67.7 billion in 1st Half 2025.

The median revenue multiple increased from 1.3x in 2nd Half 2024 to 1.8x in 1st Half 2025. The median EBITDA multiple increased from 7x in 2nd Half 2024 to 11.4x in 1st Half 2025.

M&A MARKET OVERVIEW

Berkery Noyes tracked 2,902 Media, Marketing, & Online transactions between 2023 and 1st Half 2025 of which 586 disclosed financial terms, and calculated the aggregate transaction value to be $219.64 billion. Based on known transaction value, we project values of 2,316 undisclosed transactions to be $40 billion, totaling $259.7 billion worth of transactions tracked over the past two and a half years.

Transactions from 1st Half 2023 to 1st Half 2025 with enterprise values above $80 million received a median revenue multiple of 2.6x, whereas those in the $10-$80 million range garnered a median revenue multiple of 1.8x.