Jordan, Edmiston: Digital Media M&A Down Slightly As Percentage Of Overall Media Deals
This story was written by Rory Maher.
Some of the top-line findings from the Jordan, Edmiston Group's mergers-and-acquisitions report for the first quarter of 2009, released this morning:
Total media M&A transactions were down 36 percent versus the first quarter 2008, to 129; total deal value plummeted 91 percent, to $1.3 billion.
Transactions in the first quarter versus the fourth quarter of 2008 were down 7 percent.
Some 62 percent of all M&A deals during the quarter were in digital, down slightly from the year-ago quarter.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that newspaper acquisitions were down 29 percent during the quarter, given the industry's problems, but deals involving consumer magazinesanother traditional media sector in serious troublewere up almost 90 percent in the quarter. This could indicate that investors see more value in magazine brands with an eye to building out digital businesses than newspapers, which continue to struggle to define themselves online.
By Rory Maher