The recent news of Jeff Bezos-owned Amazon buying MGM for a jaw dropping $8.45 billion caught the attention of everyone. Another major merger and acquisition (M&A) likely to happen this year is that of Verizon selling its media group to PE firm Apollo Global Management for $5 billion, CNBC reported.

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With streaming of digital content the way forward, it seems like large M&A deals in the space will keep the industry abuzz for some time.

Verizon – Apollo Global

Verizon is one of the largest communication technology companies in the world. In 2015, the company bought AOL for $4.4 billion and in 2017, acquired Yahoo for $4.5 billion. Now, Verizon is selling everything pertaining to media for $5 billion to Apollo. Verizon will get $4.5 billion in cash and retain 10 percent stake in the soon to be rebranded company named Yahoo.

Power brands such as TechCrunch, Yahoo Finance and Engadget will also be a part of the deal with Apollo getting them for a low valuation. The deal is expected to be complete by the second half of this year.

Verizon also sold HuffPost to Buzzfeed, had shut down or sold off properties such as Tumblr and Yahoo Answers. In 2013, Yahoo bought Tumblr for 1.1 billion.

Embracer Group buys Gearbox Entertainment Co

Sweden based video gaming company Embracer Group has acquired video game developer Gearbox Entertainment for $1.3 billion early this year.

Post-acquisition, properties such as Borderlands and Brothers in Arms franchises, Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, 007 James Bond and Halo franchises will be a part of Embracer.

Other mergers on the anvil

AT&T plans to merge WarnerMedia with Discovery as it is trying to grow their media house to compete with Netflix and Disney despite the debts they are in from their media acquisitions.

In 2018 Discovery took over Scripps and Comcast fought hard with Fox Networks to acquire Sky.