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.

ChatGPT is reportedly the fastest growing Web app ever, passing 100 million active users in just over two months.  How cool is that?  Cool enough that Google is releasing something similar – the Bard chatbot – “in the coming weeks”.  They promise many more AI-enabled applications to come.