M&A

Publicis outperforms its agency holding company rivals because of three primary factors: technology strategy, leadership and deal-making.

Rumors are swirling that DV is exploring an acquisition of Lumen Research to add eye-tracking capabilities to its attention measurement solution.

Advanced TV advertising company Cadent announced plans to drop $324 million to acquire the performance marketing company AdTheorent.

The acquisition should help Aditude expand its footprint in the gaming vertical. But the main rationale, from Aditude’s perspective, was CPMStar’s already-established direct sales business.

DEI is increasingly coming under scrutiny from activists and politicians. But some minority-owned and -targeted media and advertising businesses are thriving despite the increasingly fraught atmosphere around DEI initiatives.

The digital commerce agency Blue Wheel and ecommerce marketplace agency Retail Bloom announced their merger on Tuesday. Founded in the metro Detroit area in 2011 and 2015, respectively, Blue Wheel and Retail Bloom will unite under the Blue Wheel banner going forward.

Ad tech saw almost 1,500 M&As between 2020 and 2021. So is this consolidation trend here to stay? It looks like it’s a resounding yes, writes Matthew Papa, SVP of business and corporate development at Captify.

The expiration date for third-party cookies has been extended for another year. We talk through what the delay will mean for ad tech. Plus, an entire corner of the LUMAscape now exists within the Tremor-Amobee deal, the ultimate example in ad tech consolidation.

BDG sees opportunity in the parenting vertical, and its acquisition last year of Some Spider was a major step toward ramping up its focus on parenting. The publisher plans to continue creating an ecommerce-focused experience across its portfolio that allows endemic brands to target users throughout their parenting journey, according to Sharon Mussalli, BDG’s EVP of revenue and operations.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Jedi Black And Blue The EU and UK opened investigations into Google and Facebook’s ad-serving partnership that allegedly diverted funds from header bidding Friday.  “Via the so-called ‘Jedi Blue’ agreement between Google and Meta, a competing technology to Google’s Open Bidding may have been […]

Consolidation is a natural and necessary part of a maturing industry’s life cycle. But not all consolidation yields the same outcomes, particularly when it comes to mobile gaming, writes Itai Cohen, head of marketing and corporate strategy at Digital Turbine.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Google’s Privacy Shield … And Sword Google businesses have become more and more tightly tied together. The common thread is often privacy, but sometimes Google Cloud is the tie that binds.  You can see the trend surfacing on the bottom line. During earnings this […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Feed The Hand That Bites You Advertising insiders have become expert witnesses, so to speak, in antitrust battles with Big Tech.  There’s Tom Chavez, who co-founded and sold ad tech startups to Microsoft and Salesforce. He now operates a venture fund that invests in […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The “Solid” In Consolidation Are you sick of hearing about M&A already? TOO BAD! We’ve still got multiple deals being announced on the regular.  On Wednesday, the publisher services company OpenWeb – known for operating comment sections and targeting ads by user account IDs […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Relay Interference  Mobile carriers hate Apple iCloud Private Relay, an iOS 15 feature that encrypts location data, IP addresses and Safari traffic so that no companies, including Apple, can track web usage. In Europe, four carriers – ​​T-Mobile, Orange, Vodafone and Telefónica – are […]

The past year may have seemed like 2020 redux. But in programmatic media, 2021 has brought a world of change. Ad tech and mobile marketing companies flooded the stock exchange, and already-public companies, including Magnite, Digital Turbine and Media and Games Invest (MGI), which owns the ad tech business Verve Group, have become active consolidators. […]

“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media. Today’s column is written by Oz Etzioni, CEO at Clinch. 2021 is shaping up to be a breakthrough year for advertising technology. After several fallow years for ad tech companies and a necessary period of […]

New York-based startup Marpipe clinched $8 million in Series A funding with the backing of some big-name investors that it will use to fuel the growth of its creative testing platform as it looks to become an ad tech unicorn. The company, founded by 26-year-old CEO Dan Pantelo last year, uses automation to generate thousands […]

Ad verification and measurement provider DoubleVerify is set to acquire Berlin-based ad tech company Meetrics, a deal that will help fuel the newly minted public company’s global expansion. The all-cash purchase is expected to close in the third quarter of 2021. DoubleVerify CEO Mark Zagorski declined to disclose the sale price. Meetrics was founded in […]

The field of public ad tech and digital media companies is growing large – both in number of companies and their market value. To help us untangle all of the M&A, IPOs and SPACs, Progress Partners Chief Operating Officer Domenic Venuto explains how investors approach the digital media and advertising sector. One important tell for […]

Comcast-owned NBCUniversal’s ad-supported streaming service Peacock hit 54 million subscribers and more than 20 million monthly active users in the second quarter of 2021. During the company’s Q2 earnings call Thursday, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said the number of subscribers grew 50% over 90 days, driven in large part by the Olympics, the release of […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Deadlines, Give Or Take Google Chrome has updated the timeline for its Privacy Sandbox proposals, its developer test kit for identity and measurement products meant to replace the purposes served by third-party cookies. The deadlines are quarterly benchmarks, not set dates à la GDPR. […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Toyota Juggles Five Rings Toyota pulled its television advertising in Japan to avoid blowback, because the Olympic Games are widely opposed in the host country, especially after a recent spike in COVID-19 cases. It’s a bitter pill for Toyota, which is one of a […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Boom Or Bust?  New forecasts from Dentsu, WARC and others indicate the ad business is in for a boom year in 2021. GroupM projects the US ad market to grow by 15%, and global growth forecasts range from 6.4% (Magna) up to 10.4% (Dentsu). […]

Mediaocean will acquire independent global ad server Flashtalking to create what it described as a neutral tech platform with a combined $200 billion in annual media spend. It will pay $500 million to snap up the New York-based company, which brings in annual revenue of between $100 and $150 million, according to The Wall Street […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. IPOs Popping The ad tech party is raging after a slew of companies went public in recent weeks. AcuityAds, Taboola and Integral Ad Science went public in June. Not to be outdone, content recommendation company Outbrain announced plans to IPO a day before rival […]

Add another ad tech IPO to the growing list of companies that have gone public in recent months. Toronto-based demand-side platform AcuityAds on Monday said it closed out its initial public offering in the United States as well as a public offering in Canada with $57.5 million. On June 10, trading began on the Nasdaq […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Not Chump Change Another day, another fine against Big Tech. And this one could be the largest ever, or at least in Europe. The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon faces a potential $425 million penalty proposed by a European Union privacy regulator, the […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Seriously Looking Although MediaMath has been avidly pursuing strategic options for a year, including a potential sale, it hasn’t worked out. But now the company has hired a team of bankers to get the ball rolling again while ad tech M&A and IPOs are […]

“The Sell Sider” is a column written by the sell side of the digital media community. Today’s column is written by Matt Gay, the Managing Director of Media & Entertainment at Wizeline. Well, the media industry is beginning to mature. Or is it? We are entering a new wave of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the […]