The Weekly Brief · Issue no. 1

Round trips, roll-ups and the readiness gap

Hello Sunshine's buyback, agencies buying TikTok Shop specialists, Q3's infrastructure spree, and how much preparation is worth on a channel sale.

From the Creator Comps desk · October 20, 2026

Buyers in the third quarter paid for things they could measure. RockWater counts nine ad tech and software deals and eight agency deals, many of them TikTok Shop and Amazon operators, against three in talent management. Hello Sunshine went back to its founder for a fraction of its 2021 price.

A median channel and a top-quartile channel can sell for very different prices on the same profit. This week’s editor’s note looks at what closes that gap, and at how much of the price buyers defer when they can’t verify. Read the brief.

The Ledger: latest entries

All 189 records

Date	Deal	Value as published
Oct 13, 2026	Hello Sunshine (Candle Media's majority stake) Divestiture / buyback · Mediawan with Reese Witherspoon · Creator Media & Studios	Reported ██████ Pro
Sep 22, 2026	TBAR Partners Acquisition · Common Thread Collective (backed by The Acacia Group) · Creator Commerce	Undisclosed Not disclosed
Sep 22, 2026	uptickk Acquisition · Power Digital · Creator Commerce	Undisclosed Not disclosed
Sep 3, 2026	CreatorFi Funding round · Investors not disclosed · Creator Finance	Reported ██████ Pro
Sep 1, 2026	Workweek Funding round · Next Coast Ventures · Creator Media & Studios	Reported ██████ Pro
Aug 27, 2026	Levanta Funding round · Volition Capital · Creator Commerce	Reported ██████ Pro
Aug 27, 2026	Goodlife Management Acquisition · Boksi · Talent Management	Reported ██████ Pro
Aug 26, 2026	Point d'Orgue Acquisition · Publicis Groupe France · Agency	Undisclosed Not disclosed
Aug 26, 2026	Puck (majority stake) Majority/partial stake · RedBird Capital · Creator Media & Studios	Reported ██████ Pro
Aug 17, 2026	AMZ Advisers / Reach Social Acquisition · Chief Media · Creator Commerce	Undisclosed Not disclosed
Aug 12, 2026	Whatnot (Series G) Funding round · Series G investors · Creator Commerce	Reported ██████ Pro
Aug 12, 2026	Unwell Minority investment · WTSL · Creator Media & Studios	Reported ██████ Pro

Values are recorded only as disclosed by a party or reported by the linked source, and they are part of Pro. 122 of 189 records have no public value, and we leave them blank rather than estimate.

The Weekly Brief

One email a week: the deals, the terms where they are public, and a short note on what they mean. Free.

Desk tools

What is the channel worth?SDE times published Flippa and broker multiples, positioned by a readiness score.
Is this offer fair?Cash, stock, note and earn-out, compared with 9 published deal structures.
Sponsorship rate calculatorWhat to charge a brand, on any platform, from your average views.
Data-room checklistWhat a buyer will ask for, in the order they ask.
LOI and earn-out glossary18 terms, in plain English.

Figure of the week

122 of 189

Deals on record where nobody has published a price. We leave those blank rather than guess. How we record values

Know of a deal we missed?

Send the target, the buyer and a public link. We publish it once the source checks out.

Submit a deal

Transactions on record, by year

187 transactions. Coverage before 2025 is selective.

91 of 189 records are from 2026, when public trackers became more complete. Read the rise as better coverage as much as more deals. More charts

Most active buyers on record

Buyers with two or more deals in the Ledger.

Buyer directory: 139 named buyers, each with a deal history page.

How often is the price public?

All 189 records, by value basis.

Disclosed: a party published it. Reported: a named outlet did, usually citing people familiar. Undisclosed: nobody did, and we don’t guess.

How we record values