‘Sup War & Peaceniks‽
Some BREAKING News:
“Vox Media, LLC. To Acquire Group Nine Media.”
Much has been made of Amazon buying MGM, Discovery acquiring WarnerMedia, and what BIGLY mega-mergers may loom for the Media Universe in 2022.
Yet, with regulators pushing back against consolidation - especially when it comes to Trillion-Dollar Media Death Stars, M&A has actually slowed of late - or at least until the last few days, when it appears to be heating back up.
Which leads me to the third of my ESHAP-Best-Bet-Predictions-for-2022:
Merger-Mania Goes Small Ball
If you’ve been watching Succession, then phrase “merger of equals (who aren’t really equals)” should elicit a laugh.
But beyond the Shakespearean dramedy, the GoJo/RoyCo merger being negotiated currently on the HBO series is a great indication of what’s ahead in 2022.
While it’s fun to play the parlor game of “who will Apple buy?” (which I will do at length on Thursday), the number of hurdles that will stand between offer and execution for massive tech oligarchs next year will be Olympic-level.
With antitrust gladiator Lena Kahn now running the FTC, and both sides of the political aisle launching drone strikes at Big Tech, the concept that any of the MAGMA five (Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Meta & Apple) will be able to blithely scoop up anything next year simply because they have all dat cash, is soooo 2019.
Instead, deals very much like Vox/GroupNine - which offer one side scale, and the other side nice, neat, profitable exits - will become all the rage.
So, here are my 6 key M&A predictions for 2022…
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