www.rthree.com
Slow Progress in China sees M&A down by 39% vs. 2016 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
NEW YORK – JULY 10th, 2017 - M&A activity is down within the marketing communications sector, according to the latest tracking data from consulting firm, R3. For the first six months of 2017, R3 tracked a total of 186 deals in the marketing and advertising space worth a total of $4.1 billion. This marks a steep decline from the same period of 2016, with the total number of deals down 9% and the total deal value down 39%. Thus far in 2017, The US and UK are leading in transaction volume, accounting for well over 50%. The decrease in total M&A activity is the result of a significant slowdown in China – with only 12 deals in the country to date – 45% less than in the same period of 2016. NEW YORK
LONDON
SHANGHAI
SAO PAOLO
SINGAPORE
BEIJING
49% of the deals so far this year have targeted digital assets, which are broken down into two different categories. The “digital” category represents digital creative, social media and content agencies, while “digital services” focuses on ad tech or marketing agencies that rely on data analytics. This category was added into the tracking at the beginning of 2017 to account for the growing number of acquisitions in the adtech and martech sectors.
IMPROVING THE EFFECTIVENESS & EFFICIENCY OF MARKETERS & THEIR AGENCIES