Deal off: I Squared Capital has pulled out of a potential €3.5 billion takeover of Ströer’s OoH business. Investor concerns over Germany’s economy and the ad market weigh on future M&A.
Ströer: I Squared Withdraws from OoH Acquisition Talks
The year has begun with bad news for Ströer: the investor consortium led by I Squared Capital will not be making a takeover offer after all for the Cologne-based group’s out-of-home business. This was reported by news agency Bloomberg, whose sources had been tracking investor interest in Ströer from the outset. According to the report, Ströer was informed of the withdrawal at the beginning of last week.
The offer expected from I Squared had been valued at around €3.5 billion and was set to include the entire analogue and digital advertising infrastructure. This would have covered both large-scale LED landmarks – such as the new giant screen at Hamburg Central Station – as well as the adtech infrastructure for programmatic trading and thousands of traditional billboard sites.
According to Bloomberg, I Squared was unable to secure sufficient backing from additional investors. Cited obstacles included concerns about the German economy as well as doubts over the positioning of out-of-home as an infrastructure investment.
The weak European advertising market is also likely to have dampened investor sentiment. Although out-of-home has proven to be a comparatively resilient advertising channel, it did begin to feel the impact of the downturn in the third quarter of 2025. Further developments in the potential sale of Ströer, as well as M&A activity across the wider out-of-home sector, will depend on the full-year 2025 earnings reports expected shortly and on digital out-of-home’s ability to continue its technological evolution.
