Digital Media M&A Continues Growth Despite Market Volatility in Q1’18

Despite volatility in the public markets, M&A activity across the digital media space increased in the first quarter of 2018, with 370 M&A transactions announced, reflecting increases of 9% over prior quarter and 27% over Q1’17. The number of financings also increased from prior periods, with the value of disclosed financing reaching more than $25 billion.

Key industry trends driving investments and acquisitions include:

• Investors seeking to back companies disrupting markets with direct-to-consumer delivery models, including subscription-based programs;
• Consolidation of content creation and distribution to rationalize costs and command pricing premiums for traditional online video; and
• Softbank continuing to deploy its Vision Fund of nearly $100 billion across all sectors of digital media and technology.