Andy Day‘s M&A/Q&A

Duncan Edwards has been one of my favourite guests as we shared some ancient history when he tried to buy my business in the late Noughties. He was the CEO of Hearst International as well as heading up the magazine business prior to that in the UK. The guy really is a living legend in the publishing world having made hundreds of millions worth of acquisitions to build the business. Listen to his amazing story and insights into the publishing world at the global level!

In this episode we discuss M&A at the top levels of the agency world. Paul is a ‘Renaissance' entrepreneur of the media, advertising, digital, marketing and communications industry. He has held leadership positions at the highest levels at holding companies including IPG, Y&R Inc, WPP and MDC Partners. He speaks about how he has exited and reinvested multiple times as well as his current exploits.

Ian Millner is CEO of Iris Worldwide a globally agency he founded over 20 years ago. Ian has turned Iris into a powerhouse agency, doing over $100m in revenue annually. He has made multiple acquisitions, acquiring an agency virtually every year, as well as being acquired by Samsung owned agency Cheil Worldwide. Ian is a really down to earth guy and there's tons to learn from him, including, when it comes to acquisitions, just get started.

What a journey Rich Antoniello CEO of Complex Media has had! Transforming the Complex magazine business into an online powerhouse of the most recognisable content brands online today. Not only is the content great, but Complex is a 360° media business, pumping out content, brand campaigns and products. Their Hot Ones sauce is a case in point, made famous on their massive Hot Ones YouTube show. Complex has acquired a number of brands over the years Pigeons & Planes, Sole Collector and Collider. We get into those acquisitions in this episode, but that's not even their most interesting M&A credential. Rich has raised over $35 million in funding for Complex and been acquired by a joint venture between Hearst and Verizon and has just recently announced that they'll be acquired by Buzzfeed so they can list on the stock market via a SPAC. So much to dive into in this one episode, if you're an agency, brand or media know-it-all then here's some more stuff to know.

In this episode Dom Hawes of Selbey Anderson talks about how he has made 8 rapid acquisitions to build his marketing group from scratch using M&A. He's used acquisitions to scale the group, acquiring marketing agencies with an organic growth plan behind it. We discover his tips and tricks if you are also planning to grow your agency business through acquisitions too.  

In this episode Perry M Anderson shares loads of information on financing deals of all shapes and sizes. He also discusses virtual roll ups, a way of putting a deal together to leverage multiple arbitrage and help a group of agency owners to exit together for a much bigger multiple than they could achieve on their own. Perry also offers strategies for spotting acquisition targets in your current supply chain as well as tonnes of tips on M&A and del financing. 

In this episode Felix Velarde from 2Y3X explains exactly how he exited a number of agencies over the years. He now teaches agency owners how to get the absolute maximum multiple for their agencies when they exit. He also breaks down his playbook on building a roll up and getting the maximum value during an M&A event.

In this episode Sir Martin exlpains exactly how he formed S4 Capital and acquired MediaMonks and MightyHive creating a new era, new media business. 8 mergers last year and 2 mergers this year while most people were still recovering from their New Year's hangovers and have continued on an ambitious growth path and are now valued north of £3bn.