On New Year’s Day, media investment bankers at the Jordan, Edmiston Group published a summary of 2011 transactions in what they call the media, information, marketing services and technology sectors.
JEGI reports that most of the activity occurred in two sectors: marketing and interactive services; and B2C (business to consumer) online media and technology. Taken together, those two segments accounted for 505 of the year’s 896 transactions.
This week, AdMedia Partners, also a media investment bank, announced the results of their annual survey of industry executives. The AdMedia report, titled M&A Prospects for Media, Marketing Services and Related Technology Firms, looks ahead and sees growth in merger and acquisition activity in 2012.
There is some interesting data in both reports. They are available for downloading at the links provided above.
In a very real sense, what’s truly interesting is what’s not mentioned: these media investment banks are tracking (and facilitating) transactions far from the traditional media landscape. When the big news is eBay’s acquisition of GSI Commerce, or Oracle’s acquisition of Endeca, you know we’re not in Kansas anymore.
When you follow the money, you see that publishing is already blending with a variety of content-dependent businesses. The good news is, these other segments understand how content can be used to attract and serve an audience. The bad news is, that’s not how we think in much of traditional publishing.
