Thursday, November 13, 2008

Let's all work together

My colleague Mark Cochrane is in Tokyo while I am in Istanbul and has filed this guest posting for the blog:

BSG is at FIPP's inaugural Asia-Pacific Digital Media Conference in Tokyo this week. There is a strong turnout (500+ delegates) and lively discussions as you would expect. Marcel Fenez, the Global Managing Partner of PwC's Entertainment and Media Practice sees the end of the global M&A frenzy in the media sector. PwC recently surveyed 11,000 CEOs. The key take away: "collaboration, not competition."
 
Why is M&A out? Firstly, there is no debt to be had. Secondly, messy integration efforts are a distraction which cause management to lose sight of the strategic goals that brought about the deal in the first place. Media CEOs are touting collaboration with competitors and calling it "teaming."
 
Let's see how that works in Asia's B2B media world. Global Sources and Alibaba, over to you!

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