Q1 2022 Media & Marketing Industry Trends

Media & Marketing transaction volume improved 19 percent on a quarterly basis, from 228 to 272. Aggregate value rose from $13.4 billion to $127 billion. This was the peak for value during the last five quarters.

Of note, there were three deals in Q1 2022 with disclosed values that surpassed the $10 billion threshold, compared to none in Q4 2021. If the industry’s largest deal in Q1 2022 is excluded, value still more than quadrupled over the past three months.

M&A activity in the Entertainment segment gained 38 percent from Q4 2021 to Q1 2022. Two of the industry’s top three highest value deals year-to-date occurred in the segment’s gaming sector: Microsoft’s announced acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $68.6 billion; and Take-Two Interactive Software’s announced acquisition of Zynga for $12.1 billion. Also included in the top ten list was Sony Interactive Entertainment’s announced acquisition of video game developer Bungie for $3.6 billion.

Transaction volume in the Marketing segment increased 28 percent in Q1 2022 over Q4 2021. The segment’s largest deal year-to-date was the announced acquisition of Nielsen, a global measurement and data analytics company, by a private equity consortium led by Evergreen Coast Capital Corporation and Brookfield Business Partners, for $15.6 billion.

As for other sectors, the number of deals in both the B2B Publishing and Information and Consumer Publishing segments remained about constant during the quarter.

The Internet Media segment saw an 11 percent volume decline on a quarter-to-quarter basis. One notable acquirer in the Internet Media segment in Q1 2022 was The New York Times with the announced of The Athletic, a subscription-based sports website, for $550 million.