Media Industry M&A Rises to $76B in 2Q

Merger and acquisition activity in the media and communications sector totaled $76 billion in the second quarter, driven by a handful of huge deals in the cable, Internet and communications areas, according to PwC.

The total compares to $39 billion. For the year, PwC is seeing a step up in deal volume and value. “When coupled with shareholder pressure on companies to deliver ongoing growth, PwC expects M&A activity to continue to be robust well into the second half of the year,” the company said. 

The number of deals in the second quarter—208—was up a bit from the first quarter—when 198 transactions were announced.

The second quarter’s big deals included Charter Communication’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable, Liberty Broadband’s investment in Charter, and the purchase of AOL by Verizon.

(Photo via Ervins Strauhmanis's FlickrImage taken on Sept. 19, 2014 and used per Creative Commons 2.0 license. The photo was cropped to fit 3x4 aspect ratio.)