447 adtech and martech M&A deals agreed in 2014
Last year, 447 Adtech and Martech merger and acquisition deals took place, less than half the number of marcomms deals, almost a third of which was for advertising platforms with a total disclosed value of $35.5bn.
As the digital advertising sector continues to grow at a great pace, research undertaken by Results International has found that over half of the adtech deals transacted in 2014, 270 in total, took place in North America, with Western Europe the second largest region for deals, with 68, APAC saw 43 deals agreed and the UK was fourth with 36.
Of the total deals agreed, 142 were cross border and 29 were back by private enterprises, although the deals tailed off in the final three months of the year, with only $2bn being spend during that period.
The year’s most notable deals included Facebook’s acquisition of Whatsapp for $19bn, Yahoo’s purchase of Brightroll for $640m and Alliance Data Systems, which bought Conversant for $2.5bn.
As in the marcomms sector, WPP was the most active network with 11 deals, eight of which took place during the first half of the year, while Google and Twitter each completed six deals.
The busiest month for deals in the sector was found to be February with 50, followed by July with 46.
While Advertising platforms were the most popular purchase, 108 mobile deals took place, and 64 social media companies were also involved in sales or mergers.
Yesterday, The Drum exclusively revealed that 972 marcomms M&A transactions took place in 2014 with $26.3bn in revealed spend.