Heading into Q4 and a brighter 2024 | The M&A Insider | Issue #6

Welcome to issue #6 of the Cactus M&A newsletter, covering industry news and trends for September 2023.

Q4 can be a critical quarter for many businesses, especially in the retail space, so we are hearing a mixed picture from agencies regarding client confidence and spend.

This year agencies have been plagued with delays and budget cuts on many key projects, which has either hit their bottom line or required trimming of staff.

Increased interest rates are clearly impacting both consumer spending and business funding viability, and the number of winding-up petitions has soared this year, mainly from HMRC looking to collect outstanding debts.

Building a plan and tracking the financial health of your agency will be critical to achieving top and bottom line success in 2024.

See how Cactus approaches planning here.

If agencies manage to drive strong growth in 2024, we expect significant interest from buyers, especially cross-border deals with UK agencies being targeted by US and European groups.

Industry News

Mergers & Acquisitions

• Falfurrias Capital Partners invests in Brainlabs following Livingbridge, valuing the agency group at $320m

• US performance agency, The Shipyard, has received investment from Alaris Equity Partners

• New holding company, Common Interest, launched with TwentyFirstCenturyBrand as the first acquisition

• French billionaire Francois Pinault, owner of LVMH, has agreed to acquire a majority stake in CAA

News

• Deal making slows in Q2/Q3, but outlook for 2024 positive

• S4 Capital cuts jobs as tech clients slow spend

• Chat GPT now searches the web in realtime and can see,  hear and speak

• LLM Guide - comparison of the latest AI tools

• Meta Connect conference showcases their hardware plans

• Apple are building out their own advertising stack

Cactus News

• We hosted another successful "Meet" event, exploring Employee Ownership

• What do you need to do to achieve your personal and business ambitions?

• Founding Partner, Pete Hoole, shared his secret for successful M&A transactions

• Alfie Wenegieme had a great conversation with Joe Walton from Fight or Flight about scaling his agency on Agencyphonics

• Joanne Reid completed a second round of judging for the coveted BIMA Awards

What's Happening

11th October - Agencynomics Big Event, Back to Basics

A one-day conference exclusively for agency owners and founders.

Throughout the event industry leaders will take to the stage to share the vital ingredients to running and scaling a healthy and happy agency, learn more.

12th October - Design Podge

We're proud to partner with Podge Events, Maddy Nadin, Spencer Gallagher and Mark Sainthill will be attending and they'd love to connect with you.

Let us know if you're going to be there so we can catch up.

7th November - Agency Founders Drinks in Berlin

The entire Cactus team are heading to Berlin next month.

We'll be hosting a networking drinks event for Berlin-based agency owners and founders, it's free to attend, book your space here.

Recommendations of the month

Book:

Competing in the Age of AI: Strategy and Leadership When Algorithms and Networks Run the World

App:

Unstressable by Mo Gawat

Podcast:

My First Million: This $3B Founder Is The Next Elon Musk

Playlist:

Solid Muse