It’s not your imagination: merger and acquisition activity did rise sharply towards the end of last year.  Investment bank LUMA reports that fourth quarter media and martech deals were up 21% compared to the year before, (97 vs 80) even though deals were down by 45% for the first three quarters (149 vs 270).   Martech deals dropped 60% in the first three quarters but bounced back for a 6% year-on-year gain in the fourth quarter.

Netherlands-based retention management platform Retail Rocket just raised a $24 Million Series A, and immediately spent some of it to buy Sailplay, a New York-based marketing automation vendor that will grow its U.S. presence.  Retail Rocket builds unified customer profiles in a module it charmingly calls Data Warehouse, and has other modules for AI-driven personalization, segmentation, and campaign management.  The company has more than 1,000 global clients across Europe and South America.