acquired by
Metal Injection has been acquired by The Orchard, a division of Sony Music Entertainment.
Sell-side advisor: Songbird Group M&A
Referral partners earn up to $50,000 for a qualified introduction. How referrals work
For M&A industry and sales professionals: Co by SongbirdSell
Strategic M&A and growth specialists. Exits from $1M to $100M.
M&A and growth for membership, community and media businesses.
We build sales campaigns to sell your business to the strategic acquirer that values it the most. Or we work with you to grow your revenues first for a maximized future exit.
Digital membershipsPeer networksSocial clubsMembers-only clubsEventsE-learningP2P marketplacesPublishersNewslettersPodcastsYouTube
M&A firm built out of 23 years of lead generation and sales.
Brands we’ve sold to or negotiated terms with
We understand “community asset” and “audience asset” businesses, like yours.
Your community (members, event attendees) and audience (subscribers, reach) has an asset value most M&A firms and agents aren’t experienced in understanding. Yet it’s no different than inventory or real estate being part of a deal. At Songbird Group, we’re industry specialists and know how to position this asset to increase the value of your exit.
Connections and community asset businesses
- Digital memberships
- Peer networks
- Social clubs
- Members-only clubs
- Events
- Curated rooms
- E-learning memberships
- P2P marketplaces
Audience asset businesses
- Content publishers
- Newsletters
- Podcasts
- YouTube channels
- Magazines
- Other media
We represent exits from $1M to $100M. Average deal size ranges are $1.5M–$4M.
Two ways we win together.
Sell now, or grow first for a future maximized exit.
Are you ready to pursue a full or majority exit to a strategic acquirer now? Or do you want to engage our growth services first to build more value into your eventual exit?
Strategic M&A
For full or majority exits.
If you’re ready to pursue an exit in the next 1 to 6 months. We data-identify the strategic acquirers who value your business most, then run a tier-1 sales campaign to a close.
- Buyer research and a strategic acquirer shortlist
- Your sales narrative and deal book
- Direct outreach to decision-makers, never a public listing
- Negotiation and diligence support through closing
SBGrowth agency services
To build toward a maximized future exit.
Our agency works with you on a fee plus revenue-sharing model, growing your numbers now so the business sells for more when you’re ready.
- Launch or grow a paid membership
- Build a newsletter into an asset and a revenue line
- Events, sponsorship and community revenue
- Strategic brand and channel partnerships
Looking for a confident valuation instead? See the valuation package
Premium art sells through an art dealer. Your business deserves the same.
Your premium business deserves more than a listing on a marketplace or an email to a general buyers list. That’s how brokers and M&A professionals work. List and wait.
You could list premium art on Amazon and reach many buyers browsing for something low-cost for their wall. The business buyer market is the same. 99 out of 100 are just looking for anything that is a good deal — we sell your business to the metaphorical art collectors.
It’s how larger investment banks work, except they only take on clients at $100M+. We close this gap for the $1M–$100M market.
General market buyers
Marketplaces and buyer lists reach everyone, so your business is priced like everything else on the list.
Data-identified strategic acquirers
A short list of acquirers who gain far more from owning your business than its earnings alone. That gap is where the premium comes from.
Specialists in your business model, not your topic.
“Do you and your team know our niche?” Our most commonly asked question. And it’s the right thinking: work with a specialist, but the emphasis is on the wrong specialization.
When selling a restaurant, you’d certainly want a restaurant exit veteran. But she or he need not be expert in Italian cuisine or sushi.
What you teach, what your market and members converge about, what your published content focuses on is your product; Our product is the business model.
We’ve sold in 30+ markets
Markets we’ve sold in
- Animation, VFX
- Cryptocurrency
- Language learning
- Child care, ECE
- Gaming
- Motorsports
- Music
- Tech media
- Gluten-free
- Wellness and spa
- Pre-kindergarten
- Fintech
- Sports
- Food and Wine
Sales campaigns, not listings.
Many brokers and M&A firms list or announce a business, then wait. They post to marketplaces, email their buyer lists and reply to whoever responds. We know first-hand, we partner with and train many of them via our industry membership: Co.
We build demand. We use data to identify the most likely acquirers, then lean on 20+ years of lead generation to reach the decision makers, including CEOs of billion dollar brands. We’ve had calls or negotiated terms directly with CEOs of Spotify (Daniel Ek), Sennheiser (Daniel Sennheiser), Pearson (John Fallon), former CEO of Future Plc (Zillah Byng-Thorne) – and executive deal teams at Pixar, Warner Bros, public companies Embracer, Sony… the roster is long across 30+ markets we’ve worked in.
We train and partner with the industry.
Our M&A industry collective launched Q2 and now our expanded sales training brand expands on the 1:1 work we’ve done with brokers, M&A and sales professionals. Your campaigns benefit from the expanded referral partners network.
Co by SongbirdSell
Collective and coaching for deals and sales professionals.
Smaller brand. Bigger focus on you.
We can’t give you the brand name of a global investment bank. But they rarely take on clients under $100M, and they hire the same juniors we train in Co.
They can’t compete with our speed or our close rate. A lean team means senior, hands-on support on every call. We see that as a win for you.
$100M+Typical minimum deal size at global investment banks
$1MWhere our campaigns start, with a senior team on every call
Selected deals.
acquired by
acquired by
Bloop Animation has been acquired by Magic Media, an animation and VFX agency.
Sell-side advisor: Songbird Group M&A
acquired by
CampAddict has been acquired by Schwalm, owner of RV Water Filter Store.
Sell-side advisor: Songbird Group M&A
Businesses we sold to strategic acquirers for valuations above market rates.
Partial list.
- Sold DualShockers to GRV Media, as we identified that they were active in gaming.
- Sold Metal Injection to Sony’s subsidiary The Orchard, as we saw that they had just acquired a metal music label.
- Sold CampAddict, an RV how-to content site to Schwalm as they had just made an acquisition of an RV camp site and already owned an RV water filtration brand.
- Sold Bloop Animation, an e-learning site for animators, as we identified an HR/Recruitment angle for Magic Media Studios, a portfolio of 9 VFX and animation agencies.
- Sold OnMSFT, a Microsoft tech media to the parent company of Windows Report, Reflector Media as we identified an opportunity for their team to own more of the market share.
- Sold Belabumbum, maternity wear and content site to AdoreMe when we dug up data that they were pursuing an IPO. (They instead used the acquisition as one of their roll-ups and were later themselves acquired by Victoria’s Secret.)
- Sold Make A Living Writing, a freelancer writer centric digital membership to JARA Publishing as we knew they had other new properties in the education sector.
Growth services (officially launched as a stand-alone service October 2026).
- Built a 65,000-subscriber newsletter and a new revenue stream for Bloop Animation before its exit.
- Ran sales outreach for English Forums that landed a multi-five-figure deal with Grammarly.
- Worked with a cryptocurrency media in their shift away from Google dependence towards newsletters. They now have multiple newsletters and launching more and less than 40% of their traffic comes from Google.
A small senior team, and partners in Co.
Rob TothBudapest, Hungary
Ryan KaufmanOregon, USA
Gordana NiketicSerbia
Emilija DjukicSerbia
Co partners
Fabio FarinaMontreal, Canada
Marty FahnckeKansas City, USA
Chelsea ClarkeVancouver, Canada
Khaled BaranboToronto, Canada
Our team and Sellers and Buyers have been spread from Oregon and California to Texas and New York, through Canada, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary, Serbia, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia…
Start a conversation with us.
Tell us a little about the business. Everything stays confidential, and we share our NDA before any sensitive detail.
- Fill out the formTwo minutes, contact details only.
- NDAWe send our NDA before sensitive data talks.
- Meet-and-greet call and discoveryWe learn the business, the numbers and your goals.
“I can’t imagine navigating this process without your expertise… you made a stressful transition almost relaxing at times.”
Brittany Highland, COO, Knektion (Austinot)“Rob treats clients almost like business partners… giving exact action steps that he personally would take if it were his own money on the line.”
Mike M., marketing industry publication seller“Just completed an acquisition via Rob, and can’t say enough great things about him. There are only a handful of people like him out there.”
Farukh S., buyer“You and your team did a great job and delivered on all your promises, and quickly.”
Morr Meroz, Founder, Bloop Animation Studios
Prefer email? [email protected]
In the press.
FeatureGoogle Traffic Down. 7 Solutions From 11 Years of Selling Media CompaniesWhat’s New in Publishing
InterviewHow OODIENCE Uses Demand Generation for Maximized ExitsFlip My Site
PodcastThe Loneliness Economy, with Rob TothKid Carson Show
Deal newsAdore Me eyes sales bump with Belabumbum acquisitionRetail Dive
Founder, Rob Toth’s comments
I never wanted to sell businesses.
That is to say, I didn’t want to just sell any business.
I launched this company in 2015 because I saw that audience and community-rich businesses were being valued on financial performance only. That’s like selling farmland for the value of the carrots in the ground.
I realized that the dealmakers didn’t understand audience and community soft assets. They could tell you how much the real estate owned by your business is worth, or what the value of your FF&E (furniture, fixtures and equipment) is. They could tell you how to adjust for the vehicles in your fleet or how to value the physical inventory in your warehouse. Those were tangible. But when it came to a digital media with 4 million weekly readers or 30,000 members, they didn’t connect the dots.
The hard fact is that “audience” and “community members” are an asset. Brands globally spend $1.2 trillion a year to lease and rent that asset… as advertising. Yet businesses were being sold off for how many carrots that farmer grew on the farmland: the basic yield and performance metrics.
My first-ever deal was selling an industry media that was never monetized ($0 revenue) but had high web-traffic readership in a valuable market. I sold it for low six figures. Nothing wild. But I did it in under 30 days, for a web business that world-renowned marketer Russell Brunson (look him up) told me would never fetch even half that sum.
I understood digital asset value.
And coming off a decade of story crafting, sales copywriting, direct-response marketing, targeted advertising and lead generation before I ever got going in M&A, I also knew how to package that asset.
It was never about just selling businesses. It was about spotlighting the value and sales angles that the other “birds,” who lacked the sales-singing abilities, just didn’t see.
Here we are, 11 years later. A few bumps along the road, a couple of pivots and a rebrand. And we’re still finding stories in a business others missed.
I hope we get to work together. But if now’s not the right time, please connect with me through LinkedIn or come meet me at Toth House.