2013 Key Highlights

  • Reed Elsevier was the most active B2B Publishing & Information acquirer with nine transactions in this specific segment during 2013.
  • There were 156 financially sponsored transactions with an aggregate value of $21.22 billion, representing nine percent of the total volume and 22 percent of the total value, respectively.

2013 Key Trends

  • Total transaction volume in 2013 remained nearly constant over 2012, from 1,667 to 1,673.
  • Total transaction value in 2013 increased by 28 percent over 2012, from $75.81 billion to $97.30 billion. The proposed merger of Publicis Groupe SA and Omnicom Group Inc. accounted for 21 percent of the industry’s aggregate deal value in 2013.
  • The median revenue multiple rose from 1.4x in 2012 to 2.0x in 2013. The median EBITDA multiple improved from 8.0x in 2012 to 9.7x in 2013. In both instances, this marked a return to valuations that were seen in 2011.
  • Based on volume, the segment with the largest increase in 2013 over 2012 was Consumer Publishing with a 16 percent rise, from 167 to 193 transactions. Based on value, the segment with the largest increase was Broadcasting, which more than tripled from $3.95 billion to $13.34 billion.

M&A Market Overview

Berkery Noyes tracked 4,922 Media & Marketing transactions between 2011 and 2013, of which 1,311 disclosed financial terms, and calculated the aggregate value to be $191.21 billion. Based on known transaction values, we project values of 3,611 undisclosed transactions to be $45.55 billion, totaling $236.77 billion worth of transactions tracked over the past three years.

Disclosed median enterprise value multiples for all segments combined in this report during the last 36 months were 1.8x revenue and 9.2x EBITDA.

The most active acquirer by volume in the Entertainment segment, either directly or through an affiliated business between 2011 and 2013, was Zynga, Inc. with 14 transactions.