Media Insights 2006

January 2006

Welcome to the fourth edition of Media Insights from the Corporate Finance team at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

As in previous years, we analyse the trends driving M&A activity in the European media sector. We also take time to review predictions from the last edition, and set out our thoughts for 2006 and beyond.

Media M&A proved busier in 2005 than we expected, with significant activity in continental Europe, a high level of Private Equity involvement and a long tail of smaller corporate 'in-fills' driving the total number of completions to 156. Other key themes in 2005 included significant growth in demand for online marketing services and the rapid acceleration of deal activity in the online sector generally.

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