Yesterday Jim Matalone talked about starting and running Ashby St Outdoor. Today he talks about Ashby St’s acquisitions, selling to Lamar Advertising and his advice for the out of home advertising industry. You can listen to the podcast here.
Ashby St acquired 1,326 Arkansas and Kansas billboard faces from Clear Channel Outdoor in 2016. What makes for a successful acquisition?
The short and sweet answer is don’t pay too much…It’s simplistic but that’s probably the biggest thing…You evaluate what you think you can do with it…if you think there’s a lot of top line growth potential…if you think the market characteristics are great…One of the things I was completely blessed with at Ashby is that the core team which was only three or four people turned out to be awesome. They were with me until we sold 8 years later. Without Whit Weeks and Jason and the team there we would have never done as well as we did…
How did the Clear Channel Outdoor deal turn out?
The cost savings were a little better on that particular deal and then our Witchita topline growth was a whole lot stronger than we thought it would be.
Last week you announced the sale of Ashby St to Lamar Advertising. What advice would you give to someone who is selling their company?
First thing, you want to research and know what the market is paying and be realistic in your assessment of your value…Knowing what you’re worth. Objectively understanding market multiples for companies of your size and your similar markets and then understanding who made purchase like that and why they made them…
A new component is, if you’re a big digital player, understanding the age of your digitals. That becomes a factor now…If you have a lot of digital revenues and your digital boxes are starting to age…you’re in the second have of the lifespan, you’re six years into those things, that’s going to impact your deal because someone buying you is going to have to reinvest that capital…
What advice do you have for the out of home business.
It’d be good if there was better communication between the independents and the large guys. We need to get smaller independents to be a bigger part of OAAA…They need a bigger voice at the table. The IBO has been a great organization…OAAA needs to give these guys a voice.
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