BUYER POOL ANALYSIS
Selling a Publishing to Private Equity / PE-Backed Roll-Up buyers
Private equity firms and PE-backed platform consolidators acquiring for roll-up, add-on, or platform plays. Pricing tends to lead the market for fee-viable scale, with multi-bidder competitive processes above the EBITDA floor.
Quick answers
- What multiple does this buyer pool pay?
- Median EV/EBITDA 10.56x across 11 disclosed deals (P25: 7.7x, P75: 23.61x). Median EV/Revenue 2.97x across 16 deals. Median deal value: $258.29M.
- How many disclosed transactions?
- 20 deals total (2 from 2018+), filtered to Private Equity / PE-Backed Roll-Up acquirers of publishing businesses.
- Most active buyers
- Yellow Pages Limited (2) · Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (2) · Platinum Equity, LLC (1) · NordStar Capital LP (1) · Corus Entertainment Inc. (TSX:CJR.B) (1) · Informa plc (1)
Recent disclosed deals
Private Equity / PE-Backed Roll-Up acquisitions of publishing businesses with named target, named acquirer, and disclosed financials.
| Year | Target | Acquirer | EV | EV/EBITDA | EV/Rev |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | McGraw-Hill Education, Inc. | Platinum Equity, LLC | $6377.6M | 16.6x | 4.13x |
| 2020 | Torstar Corporation | NordStar Capital LP | $6.4M | — | 0.02x |
| 2016 | Corus Media Holdings, Inc. | Corus Entertainment Inc. (TSX:CJR.B) | $2058.3M | 7.7x | — |
| 2016 | Penton Business Media Holdings, Inc. | Informa plc | $1637.9M | — | 4.34x |
| 2016 | Time Inc. | JANA Partners LLC | $62.0M | 6.2x | 0.69x |
| 2015 | Visant Holding Corp. | Jarden Corporation (:JAH) | $1500.0M | 7.5x | — |
What this buyer pool prices for
Private equity acquirers price for scale and roll-up arbitrage. They pay up for businesses that fit a platform thesis — recurring revenue mix above 30%, technician/professional depth, clean financials, and a management layer that survives integration. The same publishing can command 1.5x to 2x the multiple of an individual-buyer transaction simply because the PE buyer is acquiring a platform piece, not an owner-operated shop.
Methodology note
Multiples shown are computed from disclosed M&A transactions in the ExitValue.ai database, filtered to publishing businesses acquired by private equity / pe-backed roll-up buyers. EV/EBITDA outliers outside the [0.5x, 60x] band and EV/Revenue outliers outside [0.05x, 25x] are excluded from medians. Where available, post-2018 transactions are weighted; otherwise the all-time sample is used. Deal counts shown reflect deals with disclosed financials only — total transaction count for this buyer pool is typically 2-3x larger. Full methodology
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