Media Deal Update From Jordan Edmiston

The JEGI group released their media and information industry market review this week. If you pay any attention to this market at all you shouldn't be surprised to hear the M&A market set new record highs with 399 transactions totaling $76 billion in deal value for the first half of 2007. This transaction value represented a 25% increase over the same period in 2006.

While there were many headline grabbing deals, JEGI notes that many more interesting deals occurred below the radar,

Major diversified media companies continue to reshape core models through acquisitions, and well-funded investors pursue new sources of growth. JEGI assisted with several such transactions in the second quarter, including arranging a $50 million investment for Gorilla Nation Media, the largest online advertising rep sales firm, from Great Hill Partners; the sale of Healia, an innovative heath search engine, to Meredith Corp; and the sale of TechnologyGuide.com, a provider of internet content sites for mobile technology products, to TechTarget.

The upcoming half year is expected to be as hot according to Tolman Geffs, a Managing Director with JEGI,

“There is a lot more consolidation ahead. There isn’t such a thing as old media anymore. There’s only diversified media. Every major media company is working hard to reshape their distribution model to reach new audiences, and that’s going to take years to pan out. Plus, you have an ocean of ad dollars moving from non-digital to digital.”

Increasing valuations have surprised many in the industry; however, with the continued availability of attractive financing and some large media companies radically changing their strategies and/or business models the continued volatility in the media market is expected to continue.