Active RockWater M&A Mandates

We have four deals at LOI right now, plus a handful more below we’re prepping to take to market over the next couple of months. If you’re a qualified buyer in the creator economy, reply to get on our buyers list or email deals@wearerockwater.com.

• Gaming / Entertainment Marketing & Talent Business
• Creator Marketing / Tech focus incl O&O YouTube
• Scaled Digital Talent & Marketing Business
• Digital Brand Integration and Partnerships

Not Every Engagement Is a Sale Process

Two of our most interesting projects this half never involved a sale.

Where does the next dollar of enterprise value come from?

A board asked us to look across its full portfolio of agency x network holdings and answer one question: where to double down, what to sell or shut down, and where to just grow organically. We scored each based on a rubric of market tailwinds, buyer appetite, cost to scale, and overall ROI. We then handed them a ranked plan, not a menu of options. The board used the plan to set a new forward growth plan and path to exit over the next 1-2 years.

Sell, merge, or take an investment?

Ownership of a large digital talent business was weighing three paths: bring in a minority investor, pursue a merger or acquisition, or run a full sale. We gave them the comps and direct buyer intelligence; who was an active buyer, what they were paying, and whether the owners’ price expectations matched what the market would bear. They picked a path on market reality instead of instinct, and are now solely focused on one path forward.

If you’re closer to one of these questions than to a sale process, reply. Those conversations are usually the ones that come 12-24 months before a deal.

Deals Shaping the Creator Economy

Since January, we’ve published 23 deal-breakdown newsletters, two quarterly M&A comps reports, and one set of annual predictions. We’ve covered everything from faceless YouTube channels to podcast networks to agency roll-ups. Below is a summary of our dealmaking analyses, grouped by the same categories we use in our M&A comps.

Advertising Agencies

Agencies consolidated throughout the first half. Big strategics like Accenture Song and serial acquirers like Fixated and Initial Group bought creator and influencer shops to quickly scale up social and digital-native capabilities. 

Two things stood out: buyers paid for best-in-class services and real client relationships, not just headcount, and the three major independent podcast ad agencies have now all sold within the past couple years.

• Accenture Song Buys Whalar // The $500M+ Creator Economy Deal
• PMG + Digital Voices: Moving Past the “Tech Sheen” to Close the Creator Funnel
• The “Anti-Holdco” Blueprint: Residence Buys OK COOL
• LADbible Buys Uncovered for £27M // A Publisher Buys Its Way Out of the Algorithm
• Fixated Acquires Ellify & Elevate // $63M Fuels 4 Acquisitions in Under a Year
• Miroma Buys Ad Results Media // Podcast’s 3 Biggest Agencies Have All Now Sold
• Initial Group Buys Silver Tribe Media // Turning Talent Into Enterprise Value

Media Publishers

Publishers bought audiences they can own outright instead of renting from a platform. New buyers continued to enter the market, including a legacy print magazine publisher, a film catalog acquirer, and B2B SaaS. Note the spread: strong publishers cleared healthy multiples, weaker ones sold for parts.

• Wonderloom Buys Dr. Insanity // 20-Year Film-Library Money Crosses Into Faceless YouTube
• SheerLuxe Sells for 7.6X EBITDA + Earnout // Value Range Emerges for Social Publishers
• Law&Crime Buys Court TV for “Under $125M”
• HubSpot x Starter Story: The Case for SaaS Media M&A
• Vinyl Group Buys Val Morgan Digital // AU$10.5M Roll-up
• Byron Allen Buys BuzzFeed: $20M Cash + $100M Note Secured by the Shares
• Mythical Sells Sporked to Savage Ventures // Battle for the Grocery Aisle Leads to Food Media M&A
• The Overlap Buys Mark Goldbridge’s United Stand: 7-Figure YouTube Deal Math
• Reality Marble Buys Mini Katana // RockWater Acts as Sell-Side M&A Advisor

Audio / Podcasting

New kinds of buyers moved into podcasting: a growth-equity firm (TCG) and an AI lab (OpenAI). Both paid for audience and distribution, not just download counts. Small sample, but the signal is clear: podcasts are being bought as media platforms, not just ad inventory, and owned audience gets a premium.

• OpenAI Buys TBPN // $100M+ for a Podcast Makes Sense When You Do the Math
• TCG Buys Stake in Goalhanger // Signals Market Shift in Podcast M&A Strategy

Commerce

Only one deal here that we covered, but it’s a marker. The most valuable asset to come out of the Amazon aggregator shakeout wasn’t a portfolio of brands; it was the affiliate network attached to them. Levanta bought Perch+ for the two-sided liquidity: sellers on one side, creators and publishers on the other, with the attribution rails to prove who drove the sale. The takeaway for creators: commerce revenue you can attribute is commerce revenue a buyer can underwrite.

• Levanta Acquires Perch+ // The $15B Amazon Aggregator Shakeout Has a Silver Lining for Creators

Content Platforms & Ad Tech / SaaS

Money moved into marketplaces and monetization tools like Whop, which boasts a fast-growing clipping component of the business; a marketing capability that’s increasingly garnering investor interest. Also, a profitable, cash-generating platform like OnlyFans priced lower than one would expect due to NSFW risk.

• Tether Invests $200M in Whop // Clipping, Grey Markets, and the $1.6B Creator Marketplace
• OnlyFans Sells 16% Stake // Why a $684M-Profit Machine Is Worth Just $3.15B

The Deeper Data Drops

This is where we show our work. Our 2026 annual outlook calls out where creator economy M&A is heading, and the quarterly comps reports show what deals are getting done and how they’re priced.

• 2026 Creator M&A Outlook: Entering the “Sophomore Year”
• Creator Economy M&A: Q1 2026 Transaction Comparables Report
• Creator Economy M&A: Q2 2026 Transaction Comparables Report

Events & Community

We spent the last 7 months on the road: hosting and speaking wherever the creator economy gathers:

• 1 Billion Follower Summit — Dubai (January): Kicked off the year with a presentation at the Creator Ventures space and hosted a global event for executives, founders, and investors. 
• SoCom — Santa Monica (February): Moderated a SoCom panel on livestream commerce, and we hosted our Night Before SoCom mixer at the Santa Monica Brew Works along with The Creator Society.
• SXSW — Austin (March): Hosted our exec mixer in the heart of Austin, doubling in size from last year. 
• The London Podcast Show — London (May): Our Monday-night mixer to kickoff London Podcast Show week was, in one attendee’s words, “the perfect night to own.” Hosted a panel on where capital is flowing into podcasts and creator businesses. We’ll be back in London next year.
• Night Before VidCon — LA (June). Our flagship pre-VidCon party and VidCon’s 1st official NBV event – more than 250+ guests. We also gave a keynote presentation on creator M&A capital flows, and hosted a roundtable with 20 founders and owners to guide on how to prep for an exit. 

Where We’re Headed Next

We have four more executive events coming up. If you want to get involved as a sponsor, DM me – we’re nearing sponsor capacity for this year, and are starting to reserve sponsorships for 2027.

• RockWater Sunset Yacht Cruise — LA, September 23
• CEO Steak Dinner — NYC, October 14 
• Art Basel Executive Mixer — Miami, December 3 
• RockWater Holiday Party — NYC, December 9

Ideas Worth Your Time

A few things we shared from the road this quarter:

• Building for the exit: the KPIs that actually make a creator business acquirable (our VidCon keynote presentation deck).
• Lots of buyer demand, not enough quality supply: we take 15+ founder calls a week; fewer than 5% are ready to go to market. Here’s what separates them.
• Why we’re back to pitching in person in NYC: what’s changed about how creator M&A deals actually get done.

Team

We keep colocating to do our best work; the team gathered at the New Jersey shore earlier this summer, and we’re all together in Miami next week. We also just picked office space in Manhattan, where our team will increasingly spend our time together in the 2nd half of this year.

We’re also hiring a Coordinator, Creator Economy M&A — NYC, in-office, full-time, 1–3 years experience.

—> Apply here

Not a finance role. We want people obsessed with creators and media. Modeling comes over time — operator instinct doesn’t.

Built for someone with 12–24 months at a talent agency, creator management company, MCN, social/digital agency, creator-led studio, or in-house influencer marketing team. You’ve run a desk or a campaign. You want to step into deal-making. Builder mentality.