M&A in the UK media and marketing services sectors: Q2 2025
Activity flat overall but technology-led deals on the up
82
deals completed
30%
technology-first marketing services deals
51%
deals backed by PE
Our view of the market
M&A activity within the UK’s media and marketing services sectors remained subdued in Q2 2025, as acquirers and potential sellers were cautious about economic and geopolitical uncertainty. While global stock markets largely recovered from the shocks in Q1, quoted media and marketing services businesses remained out of favour with investors, and their depressed share prices made it less easy for them to transact. Private equity backers were also less active, waiting to see how US trade tariffs and other measures would impact UK companies, as well as seeing less high quality opportunities to bid on. We saw fewer stand-alone private equity transactions, although private equity portfolio companies, including the challenger networks, remained active, with several continuing their bolt-on acquisition strategies.
We counted 82 completed deals in Q2 2025 – a 4% decrease on the 85 deals we recorded in Q1. This is in line with what we have seen in quieter quarters in the last few years but does indicate that the M&A environment remains challenging driven by the macro-economic backdrop.
The proportion of technology-led deals increased significantly and this sector is actively thriving, with AI leading the way. Technological advancements, particularly in AI, are transforming the media and marketing services sectors. New technology platforms are starting to compete with traditional studios in terms of reach, while the advertising agency model is changing to a technology-enabled, AI-driven, comprehensive approach.
The publishing sector has also seen a marked uptick in activity, with the deal number completing outstripping TV, film and entertainment, which is unusual.
Quarterly deal volume
Q2 2025 deals by sector
Trending: Performance and media buying
Performance and media buying held onto the top spot as the favourite marketing services category with acquirers. It made up 25% of all the marketing services deals we recorded. Performance marketing’s growing importance stems from its focus on measurable results, allowing clients to track ROI and optimise advertising spend effectively. This approach, where payment is tied to specific actions, such as clicks, leads or sales, has become dominant owing to its accountability and ability to deliver tangible outcomes. We expect agencies in this space to be able to adapt quickly to the opportunity that AI provides to enhance their offering.
One notable deal in the space was US-based NP Digital’s acquisition of London-based mobile marketing pioneer Yodel Mobile, which won App Marketing Agency of the Year in the 2024 App Growth Awards. The acquisition reflects a pivotal shift in digital marketing: the central role of mobile app ecosystems in delivering brand value and user engagement. As mobile becomes the primary mode of digital interaction, clients are looking to lead in a mobile-first world.
“Acquirers are focusing on AI-adjacent capabilities, rethinking their portfolios and building resilient supply chains. Today’s uncertainties look set to become tomorrow’s opportunities.”
George Hatswell, Director, Media Corporate Finance
Q2 2025 deal activity in the marketing services sector
Spotlight on: Martech
In the marketing services sector, while most deals involved the acquisition of traditional service-led agencies, 30% of the deals we recorded were technology-led. This is a significantly higher percentage than we have recorded recently. In Q1, the figure was 25% and the average throughout 2024 was just 21%. We are witnessing an increasing interest in technology-first agencies on the part of acquirers.
53% of the technology-led transactions related to martech companies – companies developing and using technology to support a digital marketing strategy – while 35% were adtech and 12% were mediatech.
Notable UK martech deals
There were several cross-border transactions involving UK martech targets.
In April, Netherlands-based prepaid payments business Recharge acquired Bristol-based digital rewards platform Giftcloud from Nasdaq-listed Groupon for a reported £15.5 million. Recharge is backed by Prime Ventures.
Also in April, US restaurant data and operational performance solutions provider Black Box Intelligence announced it had acquired Birmingham-based restaurant guest experience management and survey platform Yumpingo. Black Box Intelligence is owned by US private equity house Diversis Capital.
Major holding companies
Notable transactions
Three of the major marketing services networks – IPG, Omnicom and Dentsu – made no new acquisitions in Q2. For IPG and Omnicom, this is likely due to their ongoing focus on completing their planned merger, which continues to dominate strategic priorities and internal resources. The most recently acquisitive networks, Publicis and Havas, each completed two deals in the quarter, while WPP returned to the acquisition trail with the announcement of its first deal of 2025.
Publicis continued its search for data and digital firms for its bolt-on acquisition strategy. In April, it announced its acquisition of Adopt, a sports-centric agency based in Portland, Oregon, cofounded by former Nike executives and sports agents. In May, Publicis strengthened its foothold in the key influencer marketing space, with the acquisition of San Francisco-based Captiv8. Captiv8 claims to be the largest influencer technology marketing platform in the world, covering 95% of influencers with over 5,000 followers.
In April, Havas strengthened its commitment to healthcare and creativity with the acquisition of French healthcare communications agency FMad. In June, it acquired Toronto-headquartered CRM and digital transformation specialist Enverta Digital.
Also in April, WPP announced its acquisition of InfoSum, a data collaboration platform, heralding the deal as a major strategic step forward for WPP’s AI-driven data offer. Mark Read, CEO of WPP, said: “Bringing InfoSum into WPP is a major step forward for our data capabilities and the results we can deliver for our clients. It allows clients to stay in complete control of their first-party data, while also giving them access to vastly greater quantities of high-quality, privacy-compliant data and pioneering technology that is not available anywhere else in the market today.”
Neither Omnicom nor IPG announced any new acquisitions in Q2, remaining focused on their own planned combination. The $13 billion deal, whereby Omnicom will acquire IPG, was first announced in December 2024 and cleared another significant hurdle in June, with clearance for the deal from the US Federal Trade Commission. The deal remains on track for completion in the second half of 2025.
Challenger networks
Some of the challenger networks were busy.
The Moore Kingston Smith corporate finance and tax teams advised communications and entertainment group Common Interest on its acquisition of global creative agency Amplify in April. Common Interest has acquired an initial 51% stake in Amplify, with a commitment to purchase the remaining 49% over the next five years. This is the third acquisition Moore Kingston Smith has advised Common Interest on, having previously assisted on their acquisitions of TwentyFirstCenturyBrand in 2023 and Otherway in 2024.
Serial acquirer Stagwell purchased New York-headquartered experiential marketing and creative agency JetFuel in May.
Brave Bison continued its acquisition spree with the purchase in May of The Fifth, the influencer marketing division of News UK, part of the global media company News Corp, for a total consideration of up to £7.6 million. Because much of the deal was paid for in shares, News Corp is now a top ten shareholder in Brave Bison. In June, Brave Bison announced it was to acquire Centaur Media’s MiniMBA business which provides MBA-level education through an online learning portal to marketing professionals, in a transaction worth £19 million. Brave Bison announced that it had obtained a new credit facility and was undertaking a share placing to pay for the acquisition.
Following the two acquisitions it made in Q1, Together Group announced it had purchased French experiential agency OBO in May.
It has been a while since M&C Saatchi made any acquisitions but in May it announced it had agreed to acquire Dune 23, a specialist sports and entertainment marketing agency based in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, as it looks to expand in the Middle East.
Marketing services industry stock performance
US stock markets started badly in 2025, as investors reacted to US President Donald Trump’s announcements of tariffs, worried they would lead to higher consumer prices and a global economic slowdown. However, as America rowed back on the enactment of tariffs, investors returned to the market, those who held their nerve to “buy the dip” looking at substantial gains within a short period. Having fallen by 5% in Q1, the S&P 500 ended Q2 10% up. In contrast, European markets profited from US market turmoil in Q1, delivering their strongest quarterly performance in decades. This meant they had less ground to recover in Q2, and the UK’s FTSE100 was up by just 1% across the quarter, having delivered 5% growth in Q1.
While markets overall did well, worries about slower economic growth persisted. Investors continued to move out of high-momentum stocks like media and marketing services into countercyclical, lower-valuation segments of the market, such as defence and infrastructure. The Moore Kingston Smith Marketing Services Index therefore continued to underperform the market in Q2, ending the period 4% down. Of the 13 companies in the Moore Kingston Smith Marketing Services Index, only five ended the quarter in positive territory.
Our star performer from Q1, Brave Bison, led the pack again in Q2, seeing its share price increase by 24% across the period. Investors responded positively to its latest attempts to grow by acquisition which have resulted in News Corp coming on board as a significant shareholder, and a successful refinancing of the group, before a planned share consolidation.
S4 was our worst performer, primarily as a result of reducing its forecast for full-year like-for-like net revenue growth from flat to a low single-digit decline. At the S4 AGM, S4’s Executive Chairman Martin Sorrell said: “Market conditions in the first five months of 2025 reflect the continuing impact of, to say the least, volatile global macroeconomic conditions. As a result, clients remain generally cautious given the uncertainty, with technology clients, which account for almost half our revenue, in particular, continuing to prioritise capital expenditure on expanding AI capacity.” S4’s share price ended the quarter down 29%.
Moore Kingston Smith Marketing Services Index Q2 2025
Private equity
Of the 82 transactions we recorded in Q2, 51% involved private equity investment, either directly or via an existing portfolio company. This represents a return to the levels we experienced throughout the last couple of years, which is significantly lower than the 65% reported last quarter, which looks like something of a statistical outlier.
Nevertheless, private equity investors retain the upper hand in the M&A market, as the quoted acquirers (who were in the driving seat throughout last year) are still struggling with depressed share prices, making their equity less attractive as an acquisition currency. The PE-backed challenger networks in particular are underpinning market activity. If interest rates come down still further, as predicted, this could boost their activity even more.
Percentage of PE-backed deals
Notable UK PE-backed deals
In April, Foresight-backed, Manchester-headquartered, digital commerce transformation business Dark Matter Commerce announced it was acquiring performance marketing agency This is Digital. The acquisition marks another strategic step for Dark Matter Commerce, which previously acquired Brave the Skies and Bring Digital, following Foresight’s investment in 2021.
In May, experience intelligence business Atombit announced a significant milestone in its growth journey with investment from Palatine Private Equity and the simultaneous acquisition of three specialist consultancies – J2 Reliance, Profusion and DWise.
Also in May, Benelux HubSpot Elite Partner specialist Bright Digital acquired the UK’s Six & Flow, an international growth agency and strategic HubSpot consultancy, with the support of its Dutch private equity backer DELTA Equity Partners.
TV, film and entertainment
Within the TV, film and entertainment sector, TV and film transactions proved to be the most popular with acquirers, accounting for 42% of the deals we recorded – a sizeable increase on the 16% in Q1.
Content deals were the most prominent, accounting for 54% of the transactions we recorded in this space, followed by production services deals, which accounted for 31%.
The UK TV production sector remained hot. In April, ITV Studios acquired a majority stake in Moonage Pictures, one of the UK’s fastest growing independent producers of high-end drama, including A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder and The Famous Five. Moonage Pictures is the latest in a line of production companies to join ITV, which in recent years has also snapped up Eagle Eye Drama, Hartswood Films, Quay Street Productions, Happy Prince, Poison Pen Studios and Plimsoll Productions.
Notable UK TV, film and entertainment deals
In May, Indian mobile entertainment company Nazara Technologies acquired UK PC and consoles games publisher Curve Digital, in a deal reported to be worth $28.9 million.
Q2 2025 deal activity in the TV, film and entertainment sector
Publishing
Publishing went through something of a resurgence, with publishing transactions surpassing the number of TV, film and entertainment deals for the first time in over a year. B2B publishing was in the top spot, representing 50% of all the publishing deals we recorded. Consumer publishing came second, accounting for 43% of publishing transactions.
In April, we saw private equity involvement in the sector in the form of private equity-backed DeHavilland, a provider of political intelligence across the UK, snapping up NewsDirect, which provides policy coverage across the devolved nations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. DeHavilland is backed by two UK private equity houses – Bridgepoint and Bowmark.
Notable UK publishing deals
In June, global publishing giant Penguin Random House announced it was acquiring Wonderbly, a UK business specialising in print-on-demand personalised gift books and historic newspapers.
In May, UK B2B specialist Finelight Group announced the expansion of its financial sector portfolio with the purchase of Tungsten Publishing, which publishes such titles as Global Custodian and The TRADE aimed at professionals working in the global securities services industry.
Q2 2025 deal activity in the publishing sector
Moore Kingston Smith media M&A highlights
Outlook
While acquirers started 2025 in an optimistic mood, unexpected policy shifts, unhelpful regulatory environments and continued geopolitical uncertainty have altered the trajectory of dealmaking in some areas. Nevertheless, many of the longer-term themes driving deals are expected to endure, such as the trend towards investing in AI and technology-first businesses.
Divestment following consolidation amongst the larger networks and renewed private equity interest in the sectors, as interest rates come down still further, are also likely to underpin M&A activity in the second half of this year.
“Despite the recent slowdown, we continue to see well-funded acquirers active in the market in Q2. Private equity-backed groups and challenger networks are particularly focused on growing through acquisition, and a couple of the global holding companies are also aggressively pursuing bolt-on strategies. We expect to see more deals being done in the second half of 2025 as the macroenvironment continues to improve.”
Paul Winterflood, Corporate Finance Partner at Moore Kingston Smith
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Methodology
In compiling our deal tracker we use Pitchbook, an international financial data provider that gives access to comprehensive data on the private and public markets. We analyse every deal with either a UK buyer or UK seller (or both) and where the target company is classified as marketing services, publishing or TV, film & entertainment, the transaction is entered into the deal tracker. We classify marketing services into sixteen sub-categories; TV, film & entertainment into seven sub-categories; and publishing into four sub-categories. As well as the data extracted from Pitchbook we have used information from the following sources: koresoftware.com, marketingdive.com, adexchanger.com, take1.tv, nftplazas.com, havasgroup.com, wpp.com, thedrum.com, deadline.com, businesswire.com, ft.com, fortune.com, themarketinpractice.com, antin-ip.com, wildstone.co.uk, media4growth.com, pehub.com. Any assumptions, opinions and estimates expressed in the information contained in this content constitute the judgment of Moore Kingston Smith LLP and/or its associated businesses as of the date of publication and are subject to change without notice. This information does not constitute advice and professional advice should be taken before acting on any information herein. No liability for any direct, consequential or other loss arising from reliance on the information is accepted by Moore Kingston Smith LLP or any of its associated businesses.
