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.
New 2021 initiative.
Strong stock prices and a weak economy make it easier for big companies to buy tech than build it. For example, say you’re Hootsuite (not public, but highly valued) and you’d like to expand into customer support. Why build an agent messaging platform when you can buy Sparkcentral? In fact, they just did.
Procrastinators of the world can throw a party whenever they get around to it: Google has once more pushed back complete third-party cookie deprecation. The new target is “early next year.” Reasons for the delay include concerns expressed by U.K. data regulator Information Commissioner’s Office, an ongoing inquiry by the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority, and widespread discontent in the advertising ecosystem.