Reed Phillips

Managing Partner

Reed is a managing partner at Oaklins DeSilva+Phillips in New York, which he co-founded in 1996. Reed specializes in sell-side M&A in a number of industry sectors, including consumer and B2B media, advertising, market research, consulting, events, information, social media, marketing services and subscriptions. His recent transactions include the merger of CSI DMC with 360 Destination Group to form a leading event destination management company; the sale of Propper Daley, a social impact agency, to Bully Pulpit International; the sale of Advertising Week, the leading events company for the advertising industry, to Emerald; and the sale of three divisions of Bonnier Corporation—two magazine divisions and the leading advisory business in DE&I for the Fortune 100. He also acquired the consumer media company Essence from Time Inc. and the B2B media company Kiplinger for Dennis Publishing.

Reed has been an investment banker for 35 years and has completed over 225 M&A transactions. In 2021, his book “QuickValue: Discover Your Value and Empower Your Business in Three Easy Steps” was published by McGraw Hill. The book provides a new valuation methodology for midsize companies. From 2017–2021, Reed was president and chairman of Oaklins International. In 2007, he was awarded “Media Deal of the Year” by Mergers & Acquisitions. Reed is frequently called on to comment on M&A by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg TV and the Financial Times, and he has published articles in Harvard Business Review, The Washington Post, Inc., Advertising Age and The Deal. He is a graduate of Duke University.