Media and tech M&A trends have shifted noticeably in 2026. A couple of months ago, we introduced the buyer landscape for media and tech acquisitions. Since then, a few trends have sharpened. They’re worth a closer look if you want to know how your business is likely to be priced right now.

Buyers are drawing a hard line between two kinds of software. Some products are built around AI from the ground up. Others are legacy products with AI features bolted onto an older architecture. Legacy software isn’t worthless, far from it. But buyers are asking pointed questions about defensibility.

Could a competitor copy your AI features with a simple wrapper around an existing model? That’s a very different conversation than a product with real data or workflow advantages built in. If AI is at the core of your business, be ready to explain exactly what makes it hard to copy. Vague answers about “using AI” no longer move sophisticated buyers.

Content business valuations are bifurcating

Content businesses with an engaged audience and diverse traffic sources still command solid multiples. Buyers are more cautious with sites that lean heavily on search traffic. Those sites often lack brand loyalty or a direct audience relationship, and search behavior keeps shifting.

The data backs this up. A Pew Research Center study found that Google users clicked a traditional result in 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared. Without a summary, that rose to 15%. Of all the media and tech M&A trends this year, this is the clearest split. The best outcomes go to businesses that can show traffic isn’t a single point of failure.

Subscription churn has become a bigger diligence item

This shouldn’t surprise anyone who has watched the subscription economy mature. Churn data is no longer a supporting detail in diligence. It’s often one of the first things a buyer asks for.

Expect close scrutiny of cohort retention curves and reasons for cancellation. Buyers will also look at how churn changes over customer tenure. Strong growth paired with rising churn draws harder questions than modest growth with stable retention.

Not tracking cohort-level retention yet? Start now. It’s one of the clearest signals buyers use to separate durable businesses from ones riding a temporary wave.

All three trends share a common thread. Buyers are getting better at telling durable value apart from surface-level metrics. Revenue growth alone doesn’t tell the story it used to. Defensibility, audience diversification, and retention data increasingly do.

Final thoughts

The media and tech M&A market is moving fast. Buyers are asking more precise questions than they were even a year ago. For owners, the media and tech M&A trends rewarding sellers all point one way: back up growth with real defensibility and retention data. A strong top-line number isn’t enough on its own.

Planning to use financing? See how SBA lenders view media and tech deals. For a candid read on how buyers would price your business today, get in touch with Merge.