Online ad agencies will continue to be a hot takeover target this year, a survey conducted by i-bank AdMedia Partners says, in an obvious conclusion. The survey finds that over 80 percent of 3,200 senior media company executives believe that this year’s takeover activity will be moderate- to strong this year. Furthermore, ad holding companies will face increased competition from PE firms, the WSJ points out in its article on the survey.
As for what’s driving the M&A activity, the WSJ quotes Seth Alpert, an AdMedia general partner: “the advertising and marketing agencies are seeing client demand increasing. Many can’t keep up with it through hiring. We were at one of the major business units at one of the holding companies a few weeks ago, and the interactive unit in New York had 40 open positions. I don’t know how you fill those.”
However, the survey’s report points to one possible glitch in that drive: there appears to be a paucity of acquisition targets. About 63 percent of respondents said there were not a sufficient number of takeover targets to meet demand. Also, the survey quotes one respondent: “The real concern is not the number of deals, but the quality of deals.” The survey is available here as a PDF. Release
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