2 weeks Ago
NEW YORK: Private equity firm MidOcean Partners has agreed to acquire GSTV, formerly known as Gas Station TV, from billionaire Dan Gilbert’s private equity firm, according to the company’s chief executive officer (CEO). It’s the first time the company is trading hands in more than a decade. GSTV has been owned since 2014 by Detroit-based Rockbridge Growth Equity, which is backed by Gilbert, the billionaire who founded and controls online mortgage lender Rocket Cos.
“MidOcean believes in GSTV’s vision to build the most widely distributed and valuable location-based digital media company, and supports our strategy to get there,” GSTV CEO Sean McCaffrey said in an interview. Detroit-based GSTV is valued at US$500mil to US$600mil, according to sources. GSTV runs the largest network of video advertising at petrol stations.
Rockbridge will keep a small stake in the company, the sources added. The transaction follows a weeks-long dip in dealmaking after the markets were roiled by President Donald Trump’s April 2 tariff announcement, with totals for acquisitions of US companies sinking by almost half from the same period before then to about US$72bil, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. For its new owners, the deal is a bet that consumers will keep pumping petrol despite US economic uncertainty.
The company’s screens can be found at petrol stations around the United States at firms including 7-Eleven, BP, Chevron, Gulf, Circle K, Speedway, ExxonMobil, Sunoco, Phillips 66 and Marathon, according to its website. Despite the shift to hybrid and electric vehicles, demand at petrol stations has remained stable and resilient. Customers who fill up at petrol stations are likely to run errands and go to grocery or big-box stores on the same day, McCaffrey said, citing a 2022 study commissioned by GSTV.
He said consumer packaged goods, quick service restaurants and lotteries are top categories for advertisers on its network. GSTV runs a 41⁄2 minute show when a customer is fuelling up that features content made by influencers with social media followings, as well as presenters such as actress and TV personality Maria Menounos. McCaffrey said the company’s business has grown by three times over the past five years.
With the rise of electric vehicles, GSTV is exploring partnerships for charging stations, he said. “What we’ve all seen in the last few years is this is a complicated and subsidy-driven space, which is moving very slowly,” he said, referring to auto electrification. GSTV, which said it has 115 million unique monthly viewers, has grown through acquisitions of its own.
It merged with Verifone’s pump media business in 2017. MidOcean is a New York-based alternative asset manager. It specialises in middle-market private equity, structured capital and alternative credit investments.
Last year, MidOcean said in a statement it was teaming up with Kroger Co’s consumer products investment arm, PearlRock Partners, to invest in companies together. Its first joint investment under the MPearlrock banner was buying Nutpods, the non-dairy creamer brand. Other MidOcean investments include Casper’s Ice Cream, Imagine Skincare and Louisiana Fish Fry, according to its website.
It boosted its expertise in retail in 2022 with the hiring of Erik Oken, who had been global head of consumer and retail investment banking at JPMorgan Chase & Co before becoming global chair of investment banking there. Solomon Partners and Moelis & Co advised GSTV on the deal. — Bloomberg.
