Media and martech mergers and acquisitions slowed sharply in the first quarter of this year, according to LUMA’s quarterly market report. The slowdown began even before the coronavirus pandemic although activity dropped to near zero in March. If you’re looking for a half-full glass, LUMA believes that martech revenues won’t fall as quickly as adtech. The picture is even brighter for Direct-to-Consumer businesses.

Of course, the button-push you really care about is the shopping cart checkout. Fast lets buyers do that in one click on any Web site that uses their technology. Or they will, when Fast Checkout launches in the coming weeks. Oh, and they just raised a $20 million Series A.

Martech keeps taking larger bites out of marketing budgets: 17.3% last year, 19.9% this year, 23.5% next year, and 30.9% five years from now, according to the latest CMO Survey. This despite barely more than half (56.4%) of current tools being used and nearly half (48.8%) of the survey respondents reporting worse-than-expected results. Oddly enough, marketers rate selecting marketing technologies as the thing they do best.