If the prevailing knowledge amongst media executives the final a number of years was “it’s not value making an attempt to purchase our rival, or scale up with a bolt-on acquisition, as a result of it’ll get tousled in crimson tape authorities evaluations” then, post-Election Day, the temper has swung the opposite approach quickly to “anticipate a deal bonanza subsequent yr.”
Accounting agency PricewaterhouseCoopers’ newest closely-watched forecast formalizes this sentiment: “we anticipate a sturdy 2025 M&A market because of pent-up demand which can have been sidelined because of regulatory issues,” its media and telecom offers outlook, launched Thursday, forecasts.
Those issues have been the roadblocks arrange by the Biden administration that appeared to rein in what they considered as anti-competitive megadeals — for instance, blocking Paramount’s $2.2 billion sale of Simon & Schuster to rival writer Penguin RandomHouse and difficult Microsoft’s $69 billion bid to purchase Activision — below regulatory companies led by merger hawks Lina Khan and Jonathan Kanter, in addition to Federal Communications Commission chair Jessica Rosenworcel.
Trump’s choose for the FTC chair, Andrew Ferguson, has pitched that he’d prefer to “reverse Lina Khan’s anti-business agenda” by repealing “burdensome rules” whereas the President-elect’s selection of Brendan Carr for FCC chair was greeted warmly by media corporations (Comcast, Nexstar supplied congrats) in addition to business commerce organizations (The National Association of Broadcasters). So, in its outlook, PwC sees the choose as forshadowing of the local weather forward.
“President-elect Donald Trump’s appointment of Brendan Carr as FCC chair and the anticipation of Lina Khan’s FTC substitute counsel a return to a pro-deregulation agenda,” PwC’s report, led by principal Bart Spiegel, reads. “This transfer might speed up consolidation, empowering dominant gamers to increase their market management.”
Think of the offers that weren’t carried out this yr: In April, a lockup window for M&A involving Warner Bros. Discovery quietly handed with none blockbuster acquisition, divestment or merger. (Bank of America analysts this summer season had estimated that, for instance, CNN might doubtlessly be value $6 billion if spun off, and had additionally floated the thought of separating Warners’ cable channel property like TNT and TBS from its studios enterprise.)
Meanwhile, mini-major studios like Lionsgate and well-capitalized upstarts like A24 stay unbiased studios, identical with smaller TV gamers like AMC Networks. (Although there’s one other new effort from some corners to push Lionsgate to promote.) And, whereas it’s been rumored almost yearly, Apple didn’t makes use of its spare change to purchase a serious studio to gas its streaming ambitions but.
Not to say that Comcast waited till after the election to unveil its plan to spin off cable channels like MSNBC, CNBC, USA Network, Oxygen and E! right into a separate holding firm in a deal anticipated to shut in late 2025.
“It’s been a very long time since we’ve seen so many favorable variables align in anticipation of a sturdy 2025 mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market,” PwC notes in its outlook. “Advances in AI, dry powder at an all-time excessive, altering regulatory our bodies and transformative M&A already introduced ought to provoke media and telecom to maneuver aggressively in 2025.”
Yet, even within the obvious relative doldrums of this yr, dealmaking rebounded considerably within the second-half of 2024 in comparison with its quieter first six months. “Seven megadeals made up 63 % of the disclosed deal worth within the media and telecommunications sector in 2024,” PwC provides. “We see continued motivation to pursue megadeals given their capacity to reshape industries, consolidate markets and create long-term worth by synergies and new alternatives.”
