Q3 2025 Media, Marketing, & Online Industry Trends

Q3 2025 KEY HIGHLIGHTS

The largest deal in Q3 2025 and year-to-date was PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners’ announced acquisition of Electronic Arts (EA), for $55 billion. EA develops and delivers games, content and online services, including Battlefield™, Apex Legends™, The Sims™, Need for Speed™, and various EA SPORTS™ titles.

There were 130 financially sponsored transactions in the 1st 3 Quarters of 2025 with an aggregate value of $95.60 billion, representing 18 percent of the total volume and 59 percent of the total value, respectively.

Q3 2025 KEY TRENDS

Total transaction volume in Q3 of 2025 decreased 4 percent over Q2 of 2025, from 226 to 216.

Total transaction value in Q3 of 2025 nearly tripled over Q2 of 2025, from $31 billion to $89.9 billion.

MULTIPLES & VALUE TRENDS

The median revenue multiple increased 36 percent on a year-over-year basis from 1.4x to 1.9x.

The median EBITDA multiple rose 24 percent on a year-over-year basis from 7.8x to 9.7x.

TOP TEN DEALS THROUGH Q3 2025

The top ten deals by value have seen four new additions since our half year report. These include the previously mentioned announced acquisition of Electronic Arts by an investor consortium, Blackstone Group’s acquisition of Enverus, for $6.5 billion, Nexstar Media Group’s acquisition of TEGNA, for $6.2 billion, and Accenture’s acquisition of Aidemy, for $4.5 billion.

These four transactions, with an aggregate value of $72.4 billion, represented 45 percent of transaction value 1st 3 Quarters of 2025.