April 20, 2015 MEDIA AND MARKETING VOLUME SLOWS AFTER AN ACTIVE END TO 2014

Berkery Noyes’ Media and Marketing report for Q1 2015 showed that transaction volume decreased 11 percent in Q1 2015. This followed a 16 percent rise in Q4 2014. Total value declined 35 percent over the past three months, from $24.1 billion to $15.6 billion.

Of note, eight of the industry’s top ten largest deals in Q1 2015 were based outside of the U.S. The industry’s largest transaction during the quarter was Verisk Analytics’ acquisition of Wood Mackenzie. The data analytics and research firm, which focuses on the oil, gas, and mining market, was acquired for $2.8 billion. This marked an exit for private equity firm Hellman & Friedman, which acquired Wood Mackenzie in 2012 for $1.1 billion.

The Marketing segment saw volume remain flat for the fourth consecutive quarter. Marketing deals represented one-third of aggregate volume in Q1 2015, nearly the same percentage as in Q4 2014. It also retained its position as the industry’s most active sector, slightly surpassing the Internet Media segment. The largest Marketing deal year-to-date was Dalian Wanda Group’s acquisition of Infront Sports & Media AG for $1.1 billion. The international sports marketing company offers an array of services such as media rights distribution, brand development, and event sponsorship.

After almost doubling in Q4 2014, the Exhibitions, Conferences, and Seminars segment stayed about constant in Q1 2015, with a total of 25 transactions. The highest value deal in the segment during the quarter was Providence Equity Partners’ acquisition of Clarion Events for $307 million.

Total volume in the B2B Publishing and Information segment decreased 25 percent on a quarter-to-quarter basis. This followed a 24 percent rise in Q4 2014, which was its peak throughout the past five quarters. Notable deals in the B2B segment during Q1 2015 included Nielsen’s acquisition of eXelate, a data technology company in the programmatic advertising space, for an estimated $200 million and Dun & Bradstreet’s acquisition of NetProspex, a B2B data services and data management provider, for $125 million.

“Many B2B media organizations are seeking to capture a larger share of marketing spend by providing a host of services to their clients,” said Mary Jo Zandy, Managing Director at Berkery Noyes. “As B2B media create new product and service offerings, their clients – the B2B marketers – continue to divert a growing share of their marketing budget to new marketing services. These offerings are a means to augment revenue.”