M&A Activity Increases In Advertising & Marketing Technology Sectors

Mergers and acquisition (M&A) activity in the global advertising and marketing technology sectors has almost doubled in the past year, The Drum reports. The number of deals in place but not yet completed has increased dramatically compared to the number recorded in 2013, the article notes.

On 17 September, a conference concerning the AdTech and MarTech markets is due to take place, with a number of firms due to appear and present information gathered on the state of the sector – hopefully defining what is behind the increase in M&A activity.

There has been a large amount of investment and fundraising taking place around the AdTech and MarTech markets, with almost £2 billion being invested in the sectors in the first six months of 2014. Julie Langley, a partner at Results International, noted that the “changing nature of consumer engagement with media” as well as “constant technical innovation” has helped to drive this increase as businesses look to stay ahead in a constantly evolving and highly competitive industry.

The areas that have seen the most amount of activity include mobile, social, video, online to offline and multi-screening, Langley noted, with social media and search engine giants such as Facebook, Twitter, AOL, Yahoo and Google leading the charge.

According to data from Mergermarket, M&A deals increased by 122% compared to 2013, with total deals in the technology market reaching a total of roughly £383 billion. The large majority of these deals were from the US, with deals from the Asia Pacific region trailing.