• Ad Age, Thursday, October 4, 2007 10:45 AM

Concerns of a softer economy are slowing down mergers and acquisitions in the media and information industries, according to a study by the Jordan Edmiston Group. Third-quarter M&A activity has been clouded by credit market disruption and concerns for a potential advertising and broader economic slowdown, even though deals for the first nine months of 2007 outpaced 2006, which was a record year.

Online media acquisitions were particularly hot with R.H. Donnelly's acquisition of Business.com and Disney's purchase of Club Penguin among them. Newspapers had a fairly robust third quarter, marked by News Corp.'s $5 billion-plus takeover of Dow Jones, driving up deal value by 37% for the first three quarters of 2007.

The Jordan Edmiston report noted, however, that activity in the consumer-magazine sector had slowed in the third quarter, even though deals are still up 80% year-to-date over 2006.

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