Online Media M&A Volume Up 55%

January 11, 2007

The number of mergers and acquisitions involving online media companies last year shot to 181 from 117 in 2005, but fewer blockbusters meant a total dollar value 26.3% less than the prior year at $8.9 billion, according to data compiled by The Jordan Edmiston Group. Internet deals in 2005 valued at more than $1 billion included InterActiveCorp's purchase of Ask Jeeves and Yahoo's acquisition of Chinese portal Alibaba--but only Google's $1.6 billion acquisition of YouTube reached that level in 2006. Other major online transactions in 2006 included NBC Universal's $600 million purchase of iVillage, The E.W Scripps Company's $366 million deal for U.K-based comparison shopping site uSwitch.com, and MTV's $200 million pick-up of Atom Entertainment.

Deals in the marketing and interactive services category--which includes Google's $102 million acquisition of dMarc Broadcasting, and VeriSign's $273 million purchase of wireless services provider Jamba--jumped 42.4% to 141 transactions, and by 68.9% in dollar value to $17.5 billion. The overall media and information industries M&A market last year included 637 deals totaling more than $60 billion--an 18% gain in deal activity and a 12% increase in dollar value over previous record highs in 2005.

--Mark Walsh

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John Doyle from Peachtree Media Advisors, Inc., January 30, 2009 at 12:55 p.m.
Here is the link (http://tinyurl.com/6wynvb) to the Peachtree Media Advisors, Inc. year-end report summarizing the M&A activity in the interactive and out-of-home media sectors in 2008.
The highlights from online media M&A in 2008 are as follows:
In 2008, there were 707 merger, acquisition and capital raise transactions in the online sector of media (92 more transactions than the 615 in 2007). The 707 online media deals were comprised of 348 capital raise transactions and 359 acquisitions.
The $16.9 billion in reported deal value in 2008 represents a decrease of 62% from the $44.4 billion in reported M&A transaction value in 2007 for all of the U.S. online media sectors. The 2008 reported deal value by sector:
o Consumer - $6.2 billion (36.7%);
o Business – $4.8 billion (28.4%);
o Mobile - $592 million (3.5%);
o Enabling - $2.5 billion (14.6%); and
o Commerce - $2.8 billion (16.7%).
In 2008, $3.5 billion in reported deal value of venture capital flowed into all sectors of media, representing a 22% increase over the amount of reported $2.9 billion in capital raised in 2007. The Enabling category had the largest increase in the amount of capital raised attracting $892 million in 2008, which represents a 124% increase over the $398 million raised by the sector in 2007. The Mobile sector also saw significant gains in investment capital. The Mobile category raised $341 million in investment capital in 2008, representing a 488% increase over the $58 million raised by the sector in 2007.
? The top five sectors in terms of volume of transactions (not reported deal value) for equity raises in 2008 were as follows:
o Video & Online Games – 59 capital raise transactions;
o Social Networking – 57 capital raise transactions;
o Web Applications/Enabling/IT – 47 capital raise transactions;
o Mobile – 35 capital raise transactions; and
o Blogging/User Generated – 27 capital raise transactions.
Feel free to give me a call at anytime to discuss and have an excellent New Year!
Best,
John
Peachtree Media Advisors, Inc.
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