Adams Outdoor Advertising has acquired Greenville-based Riley Outdoor, one of North Carolina’s largest billboard companies.
Adams is a Lansing, Michigan-based company that ranks fourth-largest among U.S. outdoor advertising firms.
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but industry insiders say Adams paid in the range of $16 million to $17 million. Riley now has 201 billboard faces and seven digital displays in eastern North Carolina.
Riley founder and owner Robert Moore declined to comment on transaction details. He noted that the value of billboards has increased over the past decade because of increasing advertiser demand, reflecting the format’s effectiveness.
Billboards have benefited from declining ad spending on print publications and local broadcasting. Billboard revenue increased 4.8% in the first half of 2024, compared with the previous year, according to the Out of Home Advertising Association of America.
Moore is a Kinston native and East Carolina University graduate who started the company in 2005, naming it after his daughter. He is a former member of the ECU board of trustees and was recently appointed to the N.C. Community College System board.
“Mr. Moore has built an incredible legacy with Riley (Patriot) Outdoor,” says Mike Peters, general manager of the Adams’ Triad market.
Adams Outdoor was founded in 1983 by Steve Adams, whose family owned a variety of media businesses, including newspapers. In 2021, New York-based PE firm Searchlight Capital and British Columbia Investments bought stakes in Adams Outdoor. The company operates in seven states, with Charlotte and Charleston, South Carolina, among its major markets.
Other Adams family members run Adams Publishing, a separate Minnesota company that owns more than a dozen North Carolina newspapers that serve Boone, Greenville, Rocky Mount and other cities.