For years, many creators believed the biggest threat was other creators. Some new players are entering into competition from brands, software companies, and technology companies through smart M&A in media and entertainment.
They are not acquiring any equipment or studio facilities. They are buying audience, trust, and brand names.
This is because when a SaaS firm acquires a media and/or entertainment company, it is buying something that content creators know very well: and that is attention. They are fully aware that consumer behavior is different now. People don’t want to watch ads, don’t want any unsolicited tips or pitches, and do want people and communities they have learned to love and trust.
Some of the smartest tech companies are finally seeing content as a very valuable and useful infrastructure.
- A podcast brings leads.
- A newsletter can reduce customer acquisition costs.
- A YouTube channel can create more value faster and better than many paid campaigns.
For creators, this is an opportunity for you and a challenge to be met.
Biggest cases of M&A in media and entertainment industry
Husbpot buying creators
HubSpot is one of the best examples of M&A in media and entertainment industry because the logic is simple. Spending money trying to get attention? Difficult!
Buying media brands that already have it? Simple!
First, HubSpot bought The Hustle in 2021. That gave them (Hubspot) a popular newsletter audience and the My First Million podcast. Later, it bought Mindstream – which was an AI newsletter with hundreds of thousands subscribers.
Then it added Starter Story in 2026, platform full of founder stories and business case studies read by millions of people per year.
Source: Hubspot
Why did HubSpot make all these decisions? Newsletter? Podcast? Business cases?
Because it sells software to… business owners, marketers, and founders. Those same people already read that newsletter, listen to that podcast, and want to read good and real stories for startup/founders. So HubSpot bought the places where its future customers already spend time.
It’s definitely a smarter way than the traditional ad campaigns or traditional media companies.
People tend to be less skeptical about creators than brands behind software companies. People will certainly not pay attention to your ads, but they might take the time to read newsletters from speakers that they have learned to trust and like over the years.
Semrush buying trust in search
Semrush did not take that route, even though their thinking was solid too as they bought media associated with search, growth, and marketing training.
Clearly, their customers are marketers, agencies, ecommerce businesses, and even founders who want to grow their presence on the web.
So where do all these people spend time?
They study SEO tutorials. They get into experts’ circles. They follow industry latest news and developments. They go to seminars.
Semrush bought all of these layers and places by making one good acquisition. Three actually, but let’s talk about the first one first.
One of the best SEO education resources was (and is) Backlinko. And for that reason it was acquired in 2022. Created by Brian Dean, Backlinko became very popular due to its long yet very practical SEO guides and case-studies it published for readers.
And then, Traffic Think Tank (TTT), acquired in 2023, was a bit different. TTT was a paid community for SEO people. This M&A in media and entertainment meant Semrush was buying readers and was buying a network of serious users, consultants, and practitioners at the same time. Exactly the kinds of people who control tool purchases (Semrush) for businesses.
And then Third Door Media acquisition in 2024 added Search Engine Land, MarTech, and SMX events.
So, laid out simply, while many brands run ads, just like Hubspot, Semrush bought the places people trust before they buy.
Stripe chose to get close to founders, early
Stripe shows another smart side of media companies making exits to SaaS. For e.g. its acquisition of Indie Hackers back in 2017 was one of the smartest creator-focused deals. Again, because it targeted people before they became large customers.
If you don’t know, Indie Hackers was a founder community best for bootstrapping, startup growth, SaaS growth, or even side hustles, and revenue/business stories. And obviously its audience was developers or startup founders, ecommerce builders or solo entrepreneurs.
But why would Stripe target these kinds of people? They often start small and they only need basic tools.
So, why them?
Because some of them will grow into major online businesses that WILL need subscriptions, international payments, fraud prevention, billing systems, and custom checkout solutions. They eventually WILL need Stripe.
So, by buying Indie Hackers, Stripe gets early access to future customers long before they are shopping or even have a need for (its) tools.
Stripe Press also fits this way of thinking and strategy. Publishing books about economics, business, and technology helps turn Stripe into a long-term and founder-friendly platform.
Robinhood chose market news
In a quasi-similar way, Robinhood understood something many (fintech or not) companies learn late: users do not just want tools, they want more context. And unfortunately, trading apps can offer low fees and/or sleek design, but people still need explanations, or even daily reasons to open the app.
That helps explain why Robinhood acquired MarketSnacks in 2019. At that time MarketSnacks had made a strong following by making business and stock news simple, fast, and in a way – fun. It was no dry finance reporting which some (most) find dull, but instead, it gave younger readers short, digestible updates.
And of course, that audience matched Robinhood almost perfectly.
Usually, users who want to start investing and are beginners are intimidated by traditional financial media. So, should one try and make the language easy for them? It was a possibility, but Robinhood saw an easier way to reach them: buy a brand already speaking the language of these younger investors.
With that same logic, later, through Sherwood Media, Robinhood acquired Chartr in December 2023. The success of Chartr was mainly due to its aesthetically pleasing and intuitive graphics and graphs related to businesses, market dynamics, and trends. Again a perfect way to make investing easy for beginners.
Source: RobinHood
Mailchimp chose to buy culture
Mailchimp’s acquisition of Courier Media in 2020 looked smaller than some of the other headline deals, but it was strategically interesting and worth mentioning in this article of ours.
FIY, Courier Media is a print and digital publisher focused on entrepreneurs and of course, smartly enough, that audience overlaps with Mailchimp’s customer base.
These users do not usually respond to aggressive sales messaging. Many prefer stories, inspiration, and practical examples they can put to good use.
So, what does Mailchimp do? Acquire a media brand that had good credibility.
For Courier, the benefit from this acquisition was scale.
Media brands often hit a ceiling as they might have great audiences, but limited resources.
Mailchimp has been focusing more on design and branding and Courier fits that identity well, making this another interesting and successful case of media companies making exits to SaaS.
JP Morgan chose to buy influence
JPMorgan Chase buying The Infatuation surprised people because what does banking and restaurant content have in common? They are unrelated! Or so we think….
The Infatuation was known for restaurant reviews, city guides, and lifestyle recommendations. And JPMorgan wanted to be present in those daily life recommendations, not only when someone needs a loan or credit card.
The Infatuation had influence over where rich consumers chose to eat.
JPMorgan probably realized that using lifestyle content could give them better connections with consumers rather than banking services alone. Because, let’s be honest for a moment, bank content is not the most fun or interesting..
The purchase of Frank (a platform that helps college students with financial aid) is less surprising compared to that first buyout, but yet smart. These young college students will, one day, be future customers for wanting any financial products after they finish school.
Again, this was about early relationship building.
For both these M&A in media and entertainment, the benefit was resources and for JPMorgan, the benefit was owning trusted entry points into key life moments (eating out and paying for college).
Pendo chose to buy the center of a profession
Pendo acquired Mind the Product in 2022, and this was one of the best B2B examples of buying a professional community.
Pendo sells software to product teams. So who influences those purchases? Product managers.
Mind the Product had the trust of product managers wherever in the world through events, content, education, and community.
That makes the acquisition highly logical.
Why spend money marketing to product managers via ads or cold calling when you can simply “buy” an audience where these product leaders already are?
That means Pendo did not just buy this part of the media industry. They bought proximity to their exact buyer.
That is why M&A in media and entertainment sector increasingly includes communities, newsletters, events, and training brands. Because buyers want concentrated influence.
Capping off
Across all these acquisitions, what’s one clear pattern we notice?
Different industries but with the same logic and the same message.
Content is not “just marketing.” It is becoming a business asset. It’s becoming trust.
And video is often the fastest way to build trust. People can hear you, see you, understand you, and remember your message faster and better. A YouTube channel, short-form content/series, or founder content can become far more valuable than most creators realize.
The problem is many creators know they should publish more, but editing slows everything down and ideas pile up and raw footage sits unused. Just like that, momentum can disappear.
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