Private equity firm Vista eyes majority stake in Integral Ad Science
Amid a spate of adtech merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in recent months, Vista Equity Partners has agreed to purchase a majority stake in adtech measurement firm Integral Ad Science (IAS) for an undisclosed sum.
The move tops a spate of M&A activity in the space recently
The Wall Street Journal first unveiled the tie-up, reporting that the deal is expected to close in the third quarter. It quoted IAS chief executive Scott Kroll claiming such a deal will help it scale more effectively by “measuring more types of media” in more markets.
News of the acquisition comes amid a flurry of M&A activity in the adtech sector, with Oracle making two purchases in earlier in the year in the form of contextual targeting firm Grapeshot and machine learning outfit Datascience.com.
Vista, already a big investor in the marketing landscape, owns Marketo as well as a majority stake in Mediaocea, with the Wall Street Journal highlighting how the deal announced today (June 4) mirrors Providence Equity Partners’ investment in measurement firm DoubleVerify, plus Oracle’s $850m purchase of Moat.
The news of the Vista investment comes just a week after IAS’ Kroll hinted at a future initial public offering in an interview with AdExchanger.