Having led independent and holding company agencies for the past 20 years, Virginia Hyland knows the unique challenges of buying and selling better than most. It’s why she has decided to set up a new consultancy, Squad M&A, alongside her former colleague and CFO Vince Meoli and M&A legal expert Stephen von Muenster.
Hyland caught up with B&T to discuss why she decided to leave the cut and thrust of agency leadership for a consultancy.
She said that she had planned to step away from agency life and has been thinking about the idea of an M&A consultancy for several months.
“For the last four years, I’ve been working in a global agency and really understand what they’re looking for. Doing the Hot Glue acquisition and working with their founders to help them land successfully at Havas gave me real joy in seeing them prosper, grow and benefit from coming into a global group,” she said. “I want to help other indies realise their potential and support them in a very competitive market.”
Hyland is widely regarded as one of Australia’s leading media agency leaders. Aside from her work on the chair of the Media Federation of Australia, she ran her eponymous independent agency, Hyland Media, for more than 16 years, before selling it to Havas, where she became the chief executive of Havas Media.
Commercial, financial, legal expertise
Squad M&A brings together senior experts in commercial strategy, financial structuring, and legal negotiation to ensure every transaction achieves the right financial and cultural fit.
Financial partner Meoli, the chief financial officer at Hyland Media, has more than 30 years’ experience as CFO for global holding companies, including WPP and Omnicom, industry bodies such as the AANA and leading independent agencies.
Hyland told B&T he “calms the waters and understands how to really optimise the financial opportunity for independent agencies”.
Legal partner von Muenster, is one of Australia’s leading commercial and IP lawyers in the media and communications industry. He has advised several high-profile acquisitions for over two decades, including Match Media’s sale to Publicis Groupe, N2N Communications, Ikon Communications, Emotive, Mercer Bell, 303 MullenLowe and more. He has also supported the Media Federation of Australia to develop benchmark and best practice advertiser contract clause banks.
The leadership team will also collaborate with Creativity & Commerce founder Justin Drape to provide further creative industry knowledge and entrepreneurial experience when required.
Hyland believes that now is the ideal time to set up an M&A consultancy to guide independent agencies through the complexities of sale, merger, or partnership.
Just as importantly, Squad M&A offers support to Private Equity, global agencies and independents to identify and integrate acquisitions.
“I think 2026 is going to be a growth area in terms of acquisitions coming our way, and then in 2027 you’ll find that the market will heat up significantly,” Hyland said.
She believes consolidation is inevitable in a market that is being disrupted by AI technology, shrinking marketing budgets and challenged agency business models.
“There is a real demand in the market,” Hyland said. “Consolidation and building a footprint is really important to many agencies. The other part that actually helped me decide that this is the right time to launch is the fact that private equity firms are really starting to focus on the advertising sector. There’s an enormous amount of investment money that we’re seeing flow into this sector.
“We already have a number of opportunities and clients that we’re working on. There is a real need for this support in the industry, and we’re already seeing that bubble up both on the buy and sell side.”
Why M&As go wrong
Hyland knows from lived experience how challenging it can be as an indie leader to sell to global holdco. She has also successfully acquired companies to bring into the tent. Her buy and sell side experience provides a unique viewpoint on why so many acquisitions and mergers go wrong.
She said that sometimes the motivations for buying an independent agency, and then doing the due diligence with founders to make sure it is the right cultural fit, is often found wanting.
Founders, who are often “ambitious, hard working and enjoy the freedoms of continuing to grow” can lose motivation once to keep reinventing or changing once their buyout periods come to an end.
Hyland said that the real challenge for global holding groups acquiring independent agencies only comes after the deal has been signed and money is handed over to the indie’s founder.
“The work really starts in trying to properly integrate and optimise the opportunities of both those companies coming together, and how that will deliver incremental growth for both companies, as opposed to letting [the acquired agency] sit and languor,” she said.
“Ensuring that you land in the right culture is so critical to the success… from my perspective, you need to reinvent the culture of both companies to really make the most of it. That’s where a lot of companies get it wrong.”
This requires both parties to “spend time, reinventing and reimagining the organisation as a new culture, rather than two independent cultures that don’t change”.
It’s a point that von Muenster is mindful of when advising clients how to succeed.
“The success of any M&A transaction lies in the structure of the agreement,” he said. “Our goal is to protect founders’ interests while crafting deals that set the stage for long-term success and cultural alignment.
“I dedicate time with the founders, shareholders and acquirers to build trusted relationships leading to valuable contractual agreements long after the deal is done.”
