Q2 Media M&A Deals Slow Down, Digital Gains

Investment banker Petsky Prunier says there were 747 deals — down from 762 in the first quarter and lower than the 879 in the second quarter 2015.

The total value of the second quarter of 2016 came to $80.4 billion, versus $124.5 billion in the second quarter of 2015. 

This current period was dominated by two major deals: Microsoft’s $26.2 billion announced purchase of LinkedIn and Tencent’s $8.6 billion acquisition of Supercell. A year ago in the second quarter, there was Charter’s $55 billion proposed deal for Time Warner and a $11.4 billion deal for Bright House was announced.

Leaving out those four big deals, second-quarter 2016 media value grew slightly over the same period a year before in overall value.

For digital media/commerce this year, there were 7% more deals in the second three months of this year than the first — 317 deals versus 297 — with reported value growing 36% to $21.7 billion versus $16.0 million in the first quarter.

Traditional media deals also grew 18% to 47 deals in the second quarter versus 40 in the first quarter, highlighted by 17 entertainment media and 11 business-to-business deals. But total reported value declined during the period to $6.0 billion from $8.7 billion. 

Marketing technology deals sank 5% to 231 deals, but grew over fourfold in value to $13.9 billion from $2.6 billion.

Digital advertising deals sank 9% to 83 deals, with total value about the same at $2.0 billion. Agency and marketing deals dropped 24% to 69, with value sinking 60% to $494 million.