This week’s episode of The Big Story is brought to you by the letters M and A. Because if you haven’t heard, Magnite bought SpotX for $1.17 billion, and then District M and Sharethrough merged to form a giant exchange. So what’s going on? The team takes a look at both acquisitions, and digs into […]
TV ad measurement provider iSpot.tv has acquired Ace Metrix, a company that screens and scores video advertising using a survey-based methodology. The deal will help iSpot track both business outcomes and the brand impact of ad creative and media in real-time, including persuasion, likeability, watchability, purchase intent, brand recall and emotional factors. Advertisers can use […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Election Forecasting The absolute biggest question on everyone’s mind during the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election: How will media change? OK, maybe not the biggest. Regardless of who wins, expect regulatory consequences, Lucinda Southern writes as part of an Adweek staff roundup predicting […]
This week on the Big Story, we look at trust in the market as cataloged by LUMA Partners, and the antitrust case against Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon, as cataloged by a House Judiciary subcommittee. LUMA VP Conor McKenna swings by to lead us through Q3 M&A activity in a wide-ranging conversation that looks at […]
Subscribe to AdExchanger Talks on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud or wherever you listen to podcasts. Mediaocean CEO Bill Wise has strong words for The Trade Desk. This week on AdExchanger Talks, Wise sits for a joint interview alongside Lance Neuhauser, CEO of 4C, which Mediaocean has agreed to acquire for approximately $200 million. […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Big-Inbox Retail Verizon Media added a new feature for Yahoo Mail accounts, in partnership with Walmart: inbox shopping. Walmart will have a dedicated banner atop Yahoo inboxes, where users can search for groceries, add them to a cart and purchase without leaving their inbox. […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. On Again, Office Again Agencies are starting to plan for office returns. Omnicom is developing a three-phase return strategy based on local government guidelines, Campaign reports. Phase one involves returning offices to 25% occupancy with social distancing rules in place, such as wearing masks, […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Cut Me Some Slack Advertisers are trying to get out of their TV deals as the pandemic timeline lengthens. Brands including GM, Pepsi, Domino’s and General Mills are trying to cancel commitments to broadcast and cable networks, threatening to upend the deal-making process, The […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Google Cuts Google plans to reduce marketing investments for the second half of 2020 by up to half, CNBC reported. A selective hiring freeze has also been imposed for both full-time and contractual employees. “We are reevaluating the pace of our investment plans for […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Let’s Review Big tech companies are going under the microscope for some of their smaller, long-ago acquisitions. The FTC said it would conduct a review of deals that have been approved, particularly targeting low-cap deals that provided vast power in the market. And last […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Bye Of The Iger? Bob Iger is stepping down as CEO of Disney, the company said Tuesday. He will be replaced by Bob Chapek, most recently chairman of Disney Parks, effective immediately, and stay on as executive chairman through 2021, CNBC reports. Over his […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Hearts & Science & Mar Tech Hearts & Science is launching a mar tech division with more system integrator capabilities. “And in doing so the agency hopes to beat back increased competition from consulting firms offering similar services,” The Wall Street Journal reports. The […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Subscription Overload? The amount of time consumers spend with media increased by one hour and 24 minutes between 2018 and 2019 to almost 12 hours per day – and that time continues to fragment across media channels as new content offerings hit the market, […]
This was a major year in ad tech deal making. Many deals were opportunistic or outright fire sales, as early programmatic players like Sizmek, Rocket Fuel and IgnitionOne reached the end of the line. Ad tech and data deals were helped by a surge among public company bellwethers The Trade Desk, Cardlytics, LiveRamp, Telaria and […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. That’s Settled Disney reached a deal with Amazon to carry Disney Plus on Fire TV sets. The two companies were at an impasse on a distribution deal because Amazon was demanding a substantial percentage of the media giant’s ad revenue, The Wall Street Journal […]
Advertising technology acquisitions are back in vogue. There were 86 ad tech deals during the first three quarters of 2019, almost double the M&A activity last year, according to a report published Monday by Results International Group, an investment advisory firm. Results International typically doesn’t break out ad tech for its overall marketing technology and […]
When Adobe acquired the B2B marketing company Marketo for $4.8 billion last week, investors pressed CEO Shantanu Narayen to explain the gulf between Adobe’s price tag and Wall Street’s valuation of Marketo two years ago, when Vista Equity Partners snapped it off the stock market for $1.8 billion. Private equity investors have shown they have […]
Development of the Advertising ID Consortium, a shared cookie-based ID service for programmatic companies, has stalled as two of the key backers, AppNexus and LiveRamp, undertake protracted M&A processes. The consortium is still moving forward, according to sources with knowledge of the nonprofit group’s product development, but the already complicated politics of ‘co-opetition’ are exacerbated […]
The Washington DC, District Court on Tuesday gave the go-ahead for AT&T’s $85 billion merger with Time Warner, a decision with far-reaching implications for AT&T and the media and advertising industries. Despite the hefty price tag, industry observers initially expected AT&T’s offer to breeze through under a corporate-friendly administration. The last time the Justice Department […]
Advertising and marketing companies were leading acquirers in the media and telecom industries this quarter, according to PricewaterhouseCooper’s US Media and Telecommunications Deal Insights study released Thursday. Advertising and marketing firms led deal volumes for the quarter, representing 33% of the overall M&A activity in the media and telecom sectors. Deal volumes in marketing and […]
Is opportunity fading for ad tech startups to go public or be acquired at a healthy premium? The answer is no, at least not for everyone, said Elgin Thompson, managing director of the technology investment advisory firm Digital Capital Advisors, at AdExchanger’s PROGRAMMATIC I/O in San Francisco last week. A look back at IPO filings […]
Despite broad concerns about the viability of online media and advertising, M&A in the sector is heating up thanks to the growth of ecommerce and commerce-based media solutions, like Apple’s purchase of digital subscription service Next Issue Media for an undisclosed amount. The total number of deals in media, marketing and technology dropped by 7% […]
Media and telco M&A volume in the US increased 29% year over year in 2017 to nearly $140 billion, driven mostly by megadeals like Disney’s $68.4 billion bid for 21st Century Fox, according to new data from PwC. More specifically, there were 18 megadeals in 2017, including Discovery’s $11.8 billion merger with Scripps. Although large […]
2017 was a busy year of M&A for the digital media and marketing sector, according to reports released by investment banks JEGI and Luma Partners this week. Last year included 2,000 transactions in the sector hitting $272 billion in deal value, according to JEGI. It was the fourth consecutive year of increasing transaction value in […]
Facebook and Google are no longer the ad tech acquirers they once were, and yet, the M&A landscape of 2017 is littered with their fingerprints. Media companies swallowed one other to add scale and massive amounts of content to stave off the duopoly’s dominance. Just look at Meredith-Time, AT&T-Time Warner and Disney-Fox. AT&T’s bid for […]
There’s been no shortage of ad tech M&A lately, and video’s been one of the biggest drivers of deal activity. “Thirty-six months ago, YouTube MCNs [multichannel networks] were the video solution of choice to reach audiences with compelling content,” said Elgin Thompson, managing director for investment bank Digital Capital Advisors. “Now, solutions intended to monetize […]
For the independent demand-side platform (DSP) market, it is the best of times, it is the worst of times. On the one hand, it’s unlikely any new scaled DSPs will enter the market. The costs to build a competitive platform – nine digits off the bat and another eight digits per year in operational costs […]
Digital offers more precise measurement than most channels, which has helped move the industry from an art to a science, according to Brian Andersen of Luma Partners. “And as part of that [transition], they need to know: How do we manage our data? How do we use our data for targeting? How do you understand […]
M&A reports released in the past week show digital media and ad tech acquisitions continuing at a healthy clip. The trend is driven by increasing exit opportunities. Internet giants, commerce and retail businesses, media companies, agencies, enterprise clouds, private equity firms and telcos are all active M&A parties for data-driven digital startups, said John Prunier, […]
Ad tech mergers and acquisitions (M&A) has been a roller coaster in recent years, and 2016 certainly didn’t let up. In 2015, public and private marketplace sentiment cooled, but 2016 saw a resurgence – albeit a much more cautious one than in years past. “Good businesses in ad tech will find owners,” said Tolman Geffs, […]
