B2B media M&A activity increases, but deal times rising

Deal volumes in the B2B Information, Media, and Events sector increased during the first half of 2024, with M&A sentiment and optimism seemingly increasing in the sector amid more stable economic conditions.

According to the latest Media Acquisition Report from Collingwood Advisory, deal activity has been driven in particular by the increasing number of private equity firms and private equity-backed buyers that are active in the market.

Activity with private equity involvement has been increasing across several sectors as private equity firms seek to deploy record levels of dry powder that have been accrued during several years of reduced dealmaking.

This trend has contributed to the B2B media sector recording a 17 per cent increase in deal volume during the first half of 2024 compared to the corresponding period of 2023, as well as a 4 per cent increase compared to the second half of 2023.

However, despite this increase and growing optimism, the recovery remains tentative, with headwinds including tax increases and ongoing political and economic uncertainty during the first half of the year meaning that activity remained below historic highs.

While activity has increased somewhat during 2024 so far, valuations have remained more consistent with those seen in 2023. According to Collingwood, information businesses are continuing to attract the highest valuations, with average EBITDA multiples ranging from 13x to 16x.

Collingwood also state that leading media companies are attracting multiples of between 8x and 12x EBITDA , but traditional publishing and ad-led media businesses are likely to fall below the lower end of this range. EBITDA multiples within the events sub-sector, meanwhile, are ranging from 7x to 11x .

Despite the optimism on show among dealmakers in the sector, Collingwood’s report also found that deals are taking longer to complete in 2024 – which is seen as a major reason why deal volume continues to lag behind 2022 levels.

According to Collingwood, deal times are being impacted by factors including lower risk appetites among buyers, which is affecting both materiality thresholds and due diligence scopes, and greater competition for targets amid increasing PE-related activity, which is leading to lengthier pre-exclusivity processes.

The report also adds that, while capital costs have dropped compared to 2023, they still remain “substantially higher” than in 2022 – meaning that there remain significant price expectation gaps between buyers and sellers. In order to bridge these gaps, deal structures are becoming more complicated and negotiations are, ultimately, taking longer.

Finally, Collingwood Advisory state that sellers are increasingly less prepared to face the higher levels of scrutiny that buyers are adopting during pre-acquisition due diligence, meaning that the process is becoming more protracted.

Adam Shaw, Collingwood Advisory Global Managing Director, Corporate Finance, stated: “It’s been an unsettled year so far for businesses in B2B Information, Media, and Events. We have seen activity and sentiment remain subdued, even as inflation and interest rates have fallen back and buyers return.”

“Buyers are cautiously optimistic but wanting to do much more due diligence, which has had a knock-on impact on their targets. This has led to big differences in valuations and appetites between business models and the businesses that are performing strongly.”

Overall, though, the main takeaway of the report is that optimism regarding dealmaking in the sector is high during the latter half of 2024 and heading into 2025 – especially amid greater political certainty, falling inflation and interest rates and the decreasing cost of capital.

Against this backdrop, the report states that buyers are anticipating that deal volumes in the sector will continue to increase over the next 18 months and ultimately return to the high levels seen during 2022.


According to a recent study, due diligence processes are taking on average 64 per cent longer than they were a decade ago

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