Figures released today by specialist technology M&A advisor Results International reveal that a total of 112 deals were announced in adtech and martech in Q3 2016, representing the joint second highest level of activity on record.
In a positive quarter for the combined adtech and martech sector, disclosed deal value also represented the second highest on record with a number of new buyers.
Results International partner Julie Langley (left) says: “The last quarter continues to build on the momentum in Q2, which saw M&A in the sector close to record levels. With the re-opening of the IPO market we’re also seeing increasing confidence on the public markets, with all of the martech stocks and many of the adtech stocks we cover rising over the course of Q3.”
Q2 2016 saw strong martech M&A activity, with multiple high value deals in the form of Demandware, Marketo and Cvent. Q3 saw similarly strong adtech M&A activity. Total adtech deal activity rose 44 per cent in a quarter book-ended by two ‘mega-deals’, starting with the largest adtech deal on record: Verizon’s $4.8bn acquisition of Yahoo’s operating business and ending with the $1.4bn majority acquisition of mobile adtech firm Applovin by Orient Hontai Capital.
Verizon’s move supplements its purchase of AOL in May 2015 and confirms the telecoms company’s emergence as a major player in adtech.
Langley says: said: “While the Yahoo announcement represented the consolidation of an aged behemoth, the Applovin transaction represented the opposite; fast-growing, youthful, emerging innovation. Raising $4m in 2012 and largely bootstrapped, Applovin secured a $1.4bn exit four years later; a remarkable achievement.”
The Applovin deal is also the latest, and largest, in a notable trend; the emergence of big Asian buyers. Adtech activity from acquirers in the APAC region has increased by more than 30 per cent in the year to date compared to 2015, with the likes of Smaato, Media.net and Applovin targeted by buyers from China.
