2020-10-02 Berkery Noyes Releases Media and Marketing Industry M&A Report For Third Quarter 2020

NEW YORK — October 2, 2020 — Berkery Noyes, an independent mid-market investment bank, today released its third quarter 2020 mergers and acquisitions trend report for the Media and Marketing Industry. The report analyzes M&A activity during the three-month period and compares it with data for the previous six quarters.

Total volume in the third quarter rose ten percent over the second quarter. Overall transaction value rose six-fold during this timeframe, from $5 billion to $30.8 billion. Of note, four of the industry’s top five largest transactions year-to-date occurred in the third quarter. Two of these four deals occurred in the Internet Media segment: Adevinta’s announced acquisition of eBay Classifieds Group for $9.2 billion and Blackstone Group’s announced acquisition of Ancestry.com for $4.7 billion.

The Internet Media segment underwent a 36 percent increase in volume on a quarterly basis. Deal activity in the Marketing segment, which for purposes of this report excludes software-based transactions, increased 21 percent.

As for other selected areas covered in the report, the number of transactions in the B2B Publishing and Information segment decreased 15 percent, from 33 to 28 acquisitions. Deal flow in the Consumer Publishing segment declined 45 percent, from 22 to 12 acquisitions. Meanwhile, M&A activity in the Exhibitions, Conferences, and Events segment saw volume remain nearly constant over the past quarter.

A copy of the MEDIA AND MARKETING INDUSTRY M&A REPORT FOR THIRD QUARTER 2020 is available at the Berkery Noyes website.