LAS VEGAS – When Terry Kawaja takes in the proceedings at CES, he’s not focused on the “flashy consumer-facing stuff that we see on the show floor.” To the Founder and CEO of investment banking firm Luma Partners, it’s all about sub-trends.
This means that things like self-driving cars, drones, artificial intelligence and virtual reality take a back seat to the “undercurrent” that drives merger and acquisition activity.
“The single biggest driver in terms of what we see here at CES and how that translates into deal activity is convergent TV,” Kawaja says in this interview with Beet.TV at CES 2018. “You see all of the big linear TV companies, both content and distribution, are here.”
So what are those players discussing? Not shows or content in general.
“They are talking about technologies that allow the targeting and delivery of specific content and specific advertising to individuals and homes because of the new way that TV is consumed by consumers.”
Citing ongoing deals involving AT&T and Time Warner and Disney’s desired acquisition of certain Fox assets, what excites Kawaja is that the industry is complex, fragmented and dynamic.
“When you get significant sea changes like these technology applications to a $160 billion television market, obviously people make their moves,” he says. “There’s a lot of moving parts right now, and companies in both legacy and the sort of digital world are positioning themselves for that by making moves that aggregate distribution, content, getting scale.”
Considering the TV advances and desires of Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google and Netflix, everyone else has “clearly figured out that scale is now on a whole new level and they have to get ready.”
This video was produced by Beet.TV in Las Vegas at CES 2018. Please visit this page for more coverage.
