Q1 2017 Media & Marketing Industry Trends

Q1 2017 Media & Marketing Industry Trends Report

Media & Marketing transaction volume underwent a two percent uptick over the past three months, from 441 to 451. Aggregate value fell from $145 billion to $15.8 billion. Of note, two of the industry’s top three highest value acquisitions last year occurred in Q4 2016. This included AT&T’s announced acquisition of Time Warner for $105.3 billion. If the Time Warner deal is omitted, value decreased 59 percent, which was about the same decline when examined on a year-over-year basis.

The industry’s largest transaction year-to-date was IT research firm Gartner’s announced acquisition of CEB Global, a corporate research and advisory firm, for $3.3 billon. In addition, Gartner announced its acquisition of L2, a subscription-based business intelligence service that benchmarks the digital competence of brands, during the quarter.

Total volume in the B2B Publishing and Information segment increased 33 percent in Q1 2017. This made it the sector with the largest quarterly rise in volume.

M&A activity in the Marketing segment decreased eight percent on a quarterly basis. However, deal flow in the digital marketing subsector gained five percent. Marketing transactions represented 31 percent of aggregate industry volume in Q1 2017, as opposed to 35 percent in Q4 2016 and 40 percent in Q1 2016.

As for other select industry markets, transaction volume in the Internet Media segment increased 18 percent and nearly surpassed the Marketing segment as the industry’s most active sector in Q1 2017.

The Exhibitions, Conferences and Seminars segment saw volume improve ten percent, which followed a 48 percent rise in Q4 2016. Deal activity in the Consumer Publishing segment fell 22 percent in Q1 2017 but remained about constant year-over-year.