Payday for Dey

TALKING SHOP: Thomas Dey, president and CEO of About Corporate Finance, discusses the intensifying wave of M&A activity sweeping across the TV industry and in which his company has been a key player.

Dey and his Los Angeles- and London-based team have handled the sale of over 60 production companies in the past 13 years with around half these transactions taking place in the past three, with a combined value of some US$3.5bn.

Among ACF’s most recent deals was ITV’s acquisition of Leftfield Entertainment in the US and the firm also managed the UK broadcaster’s investments in Think Factory Media, High Noon Entertainment, Gurney Productions and others.

Other deals on the firm’s books include FremantleMedia’s buy-in of 495 Productions, Discovery taking over Raw TV, Tinopolis’s purchase of Magical Elves and A. Smith & Co, plus Left Bank Pictures’ sale to Sony Pictures Television, as well as Jeremy Clarkson and Andy Wilman’s stake in Top Gear to BBC Worldwide.

Dey discusses some of these deals – in particular the reasons he believes lie behind ITV’s expansion: “I think they’re insuring the business against the digital market going forward because the broadcast platform for everyone is going to change in the next two to five years,” he says.

The former Grant Thornton partner reflects on the deeper dynamics at work that are changing the face of the industry and says doesn’t see any sign of the current pace of consolidation slowing for now. To the contrary, he predicts a two or three significant moves from digital players into the content space within the next 12 months.