Industry M&A Outlook : 2022 was a buoyant year for deal activity in the technology, digital, media & marketing sectors

Ciesco

London, Reino Unido

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Last week, specialist M&A advisory firm Ciesco hosted an M&A Event in London to launch the Ciesco 2022 Global M&A report. 

With over 125 attendees from the world of agencies, brands, tech, healthcare and financial institutions, the delegation was able to catch up and network in person, something much missed during the pandemic and immediate post-pandemic period.

A Q&A session was moderated by Tom Seal from Bloomberg and the keynote address was given by David Wheldon, former CMO – RBS Group, Barclays and Vodafone – previously WPP, Lowes, WCRS, Saatchi’s – and of course Former President of the WFA. 

Ciesco's report finds that M&A in the media sector was significant in 2022, despite the geopolitical and economic challenges that we have and still are continuing to experience. There was a global increase in deal volume of 20% vs 2021.

Also from an agency perspective there was a resurgence of M&A activity from the mid-market and the holding network groups.

The six largest advertising holding networks made 30 acquisitions in total – a 100% increase over 2021, when they made 15. Stagwell (mid-market) entered the Top 10 of all Buyers in the entire sector at No.2 with 10 acquisitions, Havas at No 3 with 8 acquisitions (the most active of the Holding Networks) and WPP at joint No 5 with 7 acquisitions. 

For more insight on M&A activity in 2022 and 2023 forecasts, please download a copy of Ciesco's report here.