Management Firm M&A, Old Media Urgency, Brand Plays: Q2 Deals Report
Why rep firms are hot, what Hailey Bieber’s $1B Rhode sale signals, and dealmakers’ predictions on the next moves
I cover agents, lawyers and top dealmakers for paid subscribers. I wrote about the $40 million brand-deal haul for F1 and reported a three-part series about the new state of TV deals including the scoop on Apple’s new backend for writers.
With the Paramount-Skydance deal finally completed, Hollywood’s collective attention has turned to the future. And, to quote Paramount’s own Ferris Bueller: Life moves pretty fast.
The same week Para-Sky closed: Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group sold 10 of his local TV stations to Gray Media for north of $170M; Disney-owned ESPN acquired the NFL Network and other media assets in exchange for the league taking 10 percent stake in ESPN; and WWE and UFC landed multi-year, multi-billion-dollar rights deals at ESPN and Paramount, respectively.
It’s the beginning of what dealmakers expect to be a wave of M&A activity. So, while my two-part spring deal analysis focused on talent pacts and the market for original features, this summer all the attention is on blockbuster corporate transactions.
I talked with some of the industry’s top dealmakers and pulled insights from my anonymous Q2 survey about trends they’re seeing in their day-to-day business, lessons from the deals making headlines and predictions for the remainder of 2025.
“There hasn’t really been a steady state since before Covid, which was six years ago. So, nobody really knows what a normal year looks like,” says a corporate lawyer steeped in Hollywood M&A. “We’re still feeling some of the after-effects, but this year or next year should be quote-unquote ‘back to normal.’”
In this issue, paid subscribers will learn:
The company dealmakers predict (i.e., “everyone thinks”) will sell next
Which Hollywood players will be active in M&A now, including some upstarts you might not expect
Why higher interest rates lead to “healthy” M&A
More representation business roll-ups, which management companies are for sale and what Travis Kelce has to do with it
Investors’ risk-reward calculus for getting in bed with Hollywood rep firms
What dealmakers really think of Hailey Bieber’s $1B Rhode sale
Why the SmartLess trio’s mobile play is smarter than it looks
Cable networks’ pickle as their value declines, and the three “realistic” paths for each brand
The future of all these spincos, Comcast to WBD
One financial advisor’s ruthless prediction for media consolidation
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