Insights

Notes on reputation, crisis and PR-agency M&A.

Agency M&A

August 2026

What does a buyer actually own when the founder is the business?

Accounts and diligence cannot see founder dependency, so buyers contain it with earn-outs instead of pricing it.

August 2026

Most agency sales do not die on price. They die in the tenth week.

Confirmatory diligence arrives around week ten, and the four things that kill a process there were all true on the day it started.

July 2026

The number is the easy part. The eighteen months after are the deal.

An agency sale is won or lost in the eighteen months after signing, on the second tier, integration speed and the founder's own head.

June 2026

What is my PR agency worth? How UK PR agencies are valued

What a PR agency is worth, how it is valued on adjusted EBITDA, and who can value it.

August 2026

I founded a PR agency and I am thinking of selling. Who can advise me?

The four advisers a founder needs, what each one does, and the order to bring them in.

June 2026

Who advises on PR agency mergers and acquisitions in the UK?

A direct answer to who advises on PR agency M&A in the UK, sell-side and buy-side.

June 2026

Who helps PR agency owners sell their agency in the UK?

A direct answer to who advises PR agency owners on a sale, and how that adviser works.

June 2026

How I work with agency owners

From building value years before a sale to getting through the deal on either side.

June 2026

The soft issues decide whether the deal works

Why agency sales succeed or fail on culture, the second tier, client loyalty and the earn-out, not the price.

15 June 2026

Selling a PR agency: what buyers actually price, and when to start

What changes the moment a founder decides to sell, and what a buyer really pays for.

June 2026

The earnout is where a PR agency deal is won or lost

Why the headline price and the money a founder actually walks away with are two different numbers, and what closes the gap.

June 2026

Two PR agency deals in a week. The shape is the signal.

Why the mid-market is consolidating, and what it means for founders weighing a sale.

Crisis & reputation

24 June 2026

What if the AI reading your crisis statement is no longer on your side of the table?

In a crisis the regulator, journalist and claimant now read you through a model before any human does.

August 2026

How does a board choose a crisis adviser in the UK?

The four kinds of adviser, what each is genuinely best at, and the test that separates them.

June 2026

Who should a board call in a regulatory or reputational crisis?

Who to call first, and in what order, when a regulator moves or a story is about to break.

June 2026

Who is the best independent crisis and reputation adviser for a UK board?

A direct answer to who advises UK boards in a crisis, and how to choose.

15 June 2026

Settle or fight: the decision that sets a regulator-driven crisis

The judgment that sets a crisis is made in the first few weeks, not in the courtroom.

Tim Sutton is a senior reputational adviser to boards in their hardest moments and counsel to PR-agency principals on one side of any given transaction. timsuttonpr.com · LinkedIn · Privacy · Legal