2026-09-18 · acquisition · announced
Infillion → Foursquare
The company that rescued MediaMath bought a large location-data provider to measure whether ads drive store visits.
The M&A tracker
Ad tech consolidates constantly. 88 landmark deals worth a disclosed $304B+ since the 1990s, plus new deals detected in the news as they break. Why does it keep happening? Read the lesson.
Just announced
Detected in the news| Date | Deal | Value | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-01 | Lyra Technology Group → Concept Data Lyra Technology Group, part of Evergreen, has acquired Concept Data, a company based in Adelaide. Details about the transaction and Concept Data's specific role in the digital advertising ecosystem were not provided. | — | announced |
| 2026-10-01 | Knorex → AscendX Knorex has announced plans to separate its AscendX unit, which focuses on helping publishers generate revenue from their digital content. The move is described as a strategic carve-out, indicating AscendX will operate independently from Knorex's core business. | — | announced |
| 2026-10-01 | Shamrock → Saylor Shamrock has acquired a majority stake in Saylor and is merging it with Mutiny, a gaming-focused agency. The new combined agency aims to offer brands expertise in engaging fan communities, extending beyond just entertainment and gaming sectors. | — | announced |
| 2026-10-01 | Audiohook → Podscan Audiohook, an audio advertising platform, has acquired Podscan, a company specializing in podcast monitoring. This move is aimed at enhancing Audiohook's ability to track and analyze podcast ad placements and performance. | — | announced |
| 2026-10-01 | Roku → Fox Roku's Chief Financial Officer has sold 7,000 company shares, totaling $1.1 million. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice is extending its review of Roku's planned acquisition of Fox, indicating ongoing regulatory scrutiny. | — | announced |
| 2026-10-01 | Yext → Flamel.ai Yext has signed an agreement to acquire Flamel.ai, a company specializing in localized paid ad campaigns across platforms like Google, Meta, and ChatGPT. The move aims to provide multi-location brands with a unified platform for managing both organic and paid media. | — | announced |
2026-08-06 · take private · pending
Nielsen → DoubleVerify $2.15B (all-cash, $13.60 per share)
The TV ratings company agreed to buy one of the two big ad [[verification]] firms, combining audience measurement with [[viewability]], [[brand-safety]] and [[invalid-traffic]] detection. Expected to close in Q1 2027.
2026-06-15 · acquisition · pending
Fox Corporation → Roku $22B (enterprise value; $160 per share in cash and stock)
A TV network owner agreed to buy the leading US streaming platform by hours watched, combining Tubi and live sports with Roku's home screen and ad business. Expected to close in the first half of 2027.
2026-05-17 · take private · pending
Publicis Groupe → LiveRamp $2.17B (enterprise value; $38.50 per share; equity value about $2.55B)
An agency holding company agreed to buy the largest independent identity and data-collaboration platform, raising questions about neutrality for rival agencies that use LiveRamp.
2026-04-15 · acquisition · completed (closed 2026-05-01)
Viant Technology → TVision $40M ($22.5M cash plus $17.5M stock)
A DSP bought a TV [[attention-metrics|attention]] panel so buyers can optimize CTV campaigns on whether people actually watched.
2026-02-27 · acquisition · pending
Paramount Skydance → Warner Bros. Discovery $111B ($31 per share in cash; about $111B including debt)
Paramount outbid Netflix for WBD, which would combine CBS, CNN, HBO Max and Paramount+ into one very large TV and streaming ad seller. States settled their antitrust challenge in September 2026.
2025-11-25 · acquisition · completed
Broadsign → Place Exchange
Two out-of-home ad tech players combined as [[dooh]] consolidated, following T-Mobile's Vistar purchase.
2025-09-30 · acquisition · completed (closed 2025-11-24)
Zeta Global → Marigold enterprise software business $325M (up to $325M in cash, stock and seller note)
Zeta bought enterprise email and loyalty brands (Cheetah Digital, Selligent, Sailthru) to deepen its first-party data and marketing cloud.
2025-09-24 · take private · completed (closed 2025-12-23)
Novacap → Integral Ad Science $1.9B (all-cash, $10.30 per share)
IAS left the stock market four years after its IPO, as public verification stocks struggled with slower growth and pricing pressure.
2025-05-07 · divestiture · completed (closed 2025-06-30)
Tripledot Studios → AppLovin mobile games business $400M (cash, plus about 20% of Tripledot equity)
AppLovin sold its game studios to become a pure advertising technology company.
2025-03-06 · acquisition · completed
Publicis Groupe → Lotame
Publicis folded an independent identity and data marketplace into Epsilon, expanding its reach outside the US.
2025-02-27 · acquisition · completed (closed 2025-03-13)
DoubleVerify → Rockerbox $85M (all-cash)
DV bought an [[attribution]] and [[marketing-mix-modeling]] company to connect ad quality with business outcomes.
2025-02 · acquisition · completed (closed 2025-03-03)
T-Mobile → Blis $175M (cash paid, per T-Mobile filings)
T-Mobile added a UK-founded location-based audience platform weeks after Vistar, assembling a telco-owned ad stack.
2025-01-13 · acquisition · completed (closed 2025-02-03)
T-Mobile → Vistar Media $600M (about $600M cash)
A US wireless carrier bought a leading programmatic [[dooh]] platform to build its own ad business on top of location signals.
2025-01 · acquisition · completed
The Trade Desk → Sincera
Only the second acquisition in The Trade Desk's history; Sincera's supply-chain metadata feeds [[supply-path-optimization]] and ad-quality scoring.
2024-12-16 · divestiture · completed
Vivendi shareholders → Havas
Vivendi split itself up and Havas became an independently listed agency group for the first time since 2017.
2024-12-09 · acquisition · completed (closed 2025-11-26)
Omnicom → Interpublic Group $13.25B (all-stock; equity value as reported at announcement)
The merger created the world's largest agency holding company by revenue as agencies consolidated against Big Tech and AI.
2024-11-21 · take private · completed (closed 2025-02-13)
Mediaocean → Innovid $500M (enterprise value; $3.15 per share)
The agency workflow software company combined Innovid's CTV ad serving with Flashtalking, creating a large independent ad server.
2024-11 · acquisition · completed (closed 2024-11-06)
Viant Technology → IRIS.TV $10M (total purchase price per Viant filings)
A DSP bought a CTV content-data company so buyers can see what show an ad runs in, addressing [[ctv]] transparency.
2024-08-01 · acquisition · completed (closed 2025-02-03)
Outbrain → Teads (from Altice) $900M (revised: $625M cash plus 43.75M shares; originally about $1B)
A [[content-recommendation]] network bought a video and CTV ad platform to build an open-web alternative to walled gardens; the combined company took the Teads name.
2024-07-07 · merger · completed (closed 2025-08-07)
Skydance Media (Ellison family, RedBird) → Paramount Global $8.4B (investor-group cash commitments; about $28B enterprise value for the combined company)
Created Paramount Skydance, owner of CBS and Paramount+, which then launched a bid that won Warner Bros. Discovery in 2026.
2024-06 · shutdown · completed (closed 2024-09-30)
Oracle Oracle Advertising (BlueKai, Moat, Grapeshot, Datalogix)
Oracle switched off its entire ad business, including Moat measurement and the BlueKai DMP, showing how privacy rules and signal loss hit third-party data businesses.
2024-04-01 · take private · completed
Cadent (Novacap) → AdTheorent $324M ($3.21 per share in cash)
A TV ad platform took a small public DSP private, one of several deals where subscale public ad tech companies were absorbed.
2024-02-28 · merger · completed (closed 2024-11-14)
Reliance Industries (Viacom18) → Star India (Disney) $8.5B (joint venture valuation; Reliance holds about 63%)
Combining Disney's Star and Hotstar with Reliance's Viacom18 and JioCinema created JioStar, India's dominant TV and streaming ad seller, including most major cricket rights.
2024-02-20 · acquisition · completed (closed 2024-12-03)
Walmart → Vizio $2.3B ($11.50 per share in cash)
The world's largest retailer bought a smart-TV maker for its screens and viewing data, fusing [[retail-media]] with [[ctv]].
2024-01-17 · acquisition · completed (closed 2024-01-31)
LiveRamp → Habu $200M (cash and stock)
LiveRamp bought a [[data-clean-room]] software maker as brands and retailers looked for privacy-safer ways to share first-party data.
2023-12-12 · acquisition · completed
Perion Network → Hivestack $100M (cash, plus up to $25M retention and performance payments)
An Israeli ad tech group bought a Canadian programmatic [[dooh]] platform, betting on digital billboards as a growth channel.
2023-08 · acquisition · completed (closed 2023-09-14)
Infillion → MediaMath (assets) $22M (reported bankruptcy auction price)
Infillion bought MediaMath's technology out of bankruptcy for a small fraction of its former billion-dollar valuation and relaunched it.
2023-07-31 · acquisition · completed (closed 2023-09-14)
DoubleVerify → Scibids $125M (cash and stock, plus possible earn-out)
DV bought an AI bid-optimization company, moving verification vendors from measuring quality to steering what gets bought.
2023-06-30 · shutdown · completed
MediaMath MediaMath (Chapter 11)
One of the original [[dsp|DSPs]] abruptly went offline and filed for bankruptcy, leaving publishers and SSPs unpaid and highlighting payment risk in the programmatic chain.
2022-07-27 · merger · completed
HUMAN Security → PerimeterX
The ad fraud specialist behind the Methbot and 3ve takedowns merged with a web bot-defence company, reflecting that the same bots commit [[ad-fraud]], account takeover and scraping.
2022-07-25 · acquisition · completed
Tremor International → Amobee (from Singtel) $239M (all-cash)
Tremor added a DSP and advanced TV tools to become an end-to-end video platform, later renamed Nexxen. Singtel had paid $321M for Amobee in 2012.
2022-07-13 · merger · completed (closed 2022-11-07)
Unity Software → ironSource $4.4B (all-stock)
The game-engine maker merged with a leading app monetization and [[mediation]] company to compete with AppLovin; it drew a rival (rejected) bid from AppLovin itself.
2022-04-25 · take private · completed (closed 2022-10-27)
Elon Musk → Twitter $44B ($54.20 per share in cash)
After the takeover, many large advertisers paused spending over brand-safety concerns, a vivid example of how [[brand-safety]] shapes platform revenue. Twitter was renamed X.
2022-03-29 · take private · completed (closed 2022-10-11)
Evergreen Coast Capital (Elliott) and Brookfield consortium → Nielsen $16B (all-cash including debt; $28 per share)
The TV ratings giant went private after losing MRC accreditation and facing new cross-platform measurement rivals.
2021-12-21 · acquisition · completed (closed 2022-06)
Microsoft → Xandr (from AT&T) $1B (reported estimate; not disclosed)
Microsoft bought back into programmatic ad tech with the former AppNexus. It later shut down the Xandr Invest DSP in favour of its own platforms.
2021-12-14 · acquisition · completed (closed 2022-08-01)
Criteo → Iponweb $250M (revised from $380M; plus up to $100M earn-out; excluded Russian unit)
Criteo bought the white-label bidding infrastructure behind many DSPs and exchanges to power its commerce media platform; the price was cut after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
2021-11-09 · acquisition · completed (closed 2021-11-22)
DoubleVerify → OpenSlate $150M ($125M cash plus $25M stock)
DoubleVerify added [[brand-suitability]] and contextual tools for YouTube, Facebook and TikTok video, extending verification into walled gardens.
2021-10-06 · acquisition · completed (closed 2022-01-03)
AppLovin → MoPub (from Twitter) $1.05B (all-cash)
AppLovin bought a major in-app [[mediation]] rival and migrated its publishers to AppLovin MAX, consolidating app monetization.
2021-07-23 · acquisition · completed
Taboola → Connexity $800M (cash and stock)
Taboola bought an e-commerce affiliate and shopping-ads network to grow commerce revenue on the open web.
2021-07-01 · acquisition · completed
Magnite → SpringServe $31M (net of a prior $2M investment)
Magnite added a CTV ad server, letting it sit in the publisher's decisioning path for [[ctv]] rather than only running auctions.
2021-06-30 · ipo · completed
Public markets Integral Ad Science
DoubleVerify's main rival followed it onto the public markets weeks later; IAS was taken private again in 2025.
2021-05-03 · take private · completed (closed 2021-09-01)
Apollo Global Management → Verizon Media (Yahoo, AOL) $5B ($4.25B cash, $750M preferred; Verizon kept 10%)
Verizon sold Yahoo and AOL for roughly half of what it had paid, ending the telecom bet on owning ad tech. The business was renamed Yahoo.
2021-04-21 · ipo · completed
Public markets DoubleVerify
A [[verification]] company that measures [[viewability]], [[brand-safety]] and [[invalid-traffic]] went public, showing how central ad quality had become to ad budgets.
2021-04-15 · ipo · completed
Public markets AppLovin
AppLovin listed as a mix of mobile games and ad tech; it later sold the games and became one of the largest ad tech companies by market value.
2021-03-22 · acquisition · completed (closed 2021-05-25)
Digital Turbine → Fyber $600M (cash, stock and $50M earn-out)
Part of a 2021 wave of app ad tech roll-ups, adding an in-app exchange to Digital Turbine's on-device app distribution business.
2021-02-05 · acquisition · completed (closed 2021-04-30)
Magnite → SpotX (from RTL Group) $1.17B ($560M cash plus 14M Magnite shares)
Magnite bought a major video and [[ctv]] [[ssp]], creating the largest independent CTV sell-side platform.
2021-01-25 · spac · completed (closed 2021-06-29)
ION Acquisition Corp. 1 (SPAC) → Taboola $2.6B (implied valuation)
Taboola listed on Nasdaq through a SPAC merger, part of the 2021 wave of ad tech listings.
2020-12-09 · ipo · completed
Public markets PubMatic
A profitable, India-engineered [[ssp]] listed at the height of the pandemic ad tech rally, reopening public markets to sell-side companies.
2019-12-19 · merger · completed (closed 2020-04-01)
Rubicon Project → Telaria
A display [[ssp]] merged with a [[ctv]] specialist to create the largest independent sell-side platform, rebranded Magnite in June 2020.
2019-10 · merger · terminated (closed 2020-09-08)
Taboola → Outbrain $850M (proposed merger value)
The two biggest [[content-recommendation]] networks tried to combine, but the deal collapsed amid UK and Israeli antitrust review and pandemic repricing. Both later listed separately.
2019-07-12 · divestiture · completed
Bain Capital → Kantar (60% stake from WPP) $4B (valuation of Kantar; WPP proceeds about $3.1B)
WPP sold control of its research arm to pay down debt, a sign that holding companies were shrinking to focus on media and creative.
2019-05-31 · acquisition · completed
Amazon → Sizmek Ad Server and DCO
Amazon picked up the second-largest independent ad server out of Sizmek's bankruptcy, giving Amazon Ads a way to serve and measure campaigns beyond its own store.
2019-04-14 · acquisition · completed (closed 2019-07-02)
Publicis Groupe → Epsilon $4.4B (all-cash; about $3.95B net of tax benefits)
Publicis bought one of the largest US marketing data companies, making first-party and identity data the centre of its pitch to clients.
2018-07-02 · acquisition · completed
Interpublic Group → Acxiom Marketing Solutions $2.3B (all-cash)
IPG bought a giant consumer data business, making data a core agency asset; the rest of the old Acxiom became LiveRamp.
2018-06-25 · acquisition · completed (closed 2018-08-15)
AT&T → AppNexus $1.6B (reported (WSJ); AT&T did not disclose the price)
AT&T bought the largest independent ad exchange to pair with Time Warner content and wireless data, renaming it Xandr. It sold Xandr to Microsoft three years later.
2018-06-04 · investment · completed
Vista Equity Partners → Integral Ad Science $850M (reported valuation; majority stake)
Private equity bet on [[verification]] as a durable business; IAS went public three years later.
2017-04-18 · acquisition · completed
Oracle → Moat $850M (reported "more than $850M")
Oracle bought a leading [[viewability]] and [[attention-metrics|attention]] measurement firm; Moat was switched off when Oracle exited advertising in 2024.
2016-10-03 · acquisition · completed
Salesforce → Krux $700M (about $700M cash and stock)
The CRM leader bought a [[dmp]] to join Adobe and Oracle in the marketing cloud race; Krux became Salesforce Audience Studio.
2016-09-21 · ipo · completed
Public markets The Trade Desk
The independent [[dsp]] became one of the most valuable ad tech companies in the world, proof that a buy-side platform without its own media could thrive.
2016-07-25 · acquisition · completed (closed 2017-06-13)
Verizon → Yahoo (operating business) $4.48B (cut from $4.83B after data breaches were disclosed)
Verizon merged Yahoo with AOL into "Oath", assembling a large ad tech and media group that it sold to Apollo only four years later.
2015-09-29 · merger · completed (closed 2016-01-29)
comScore → Rentrak $768M (all-stock, value at completion as reported)
Combining digital panels with TV set-top-box data was meant to create a cross-screen rival to Nielsen.
2015-09-03 · acquisition · completed (closed 2015-10-23)
AOL (Verizon) → Millennial Media $238M ($1.75 per share)
AOL added a large mobile ad network, part of Verizon's push to build a mobile-first ad stack.
2015-05-12 · acquisition · completed
Verizon → AOL $4.4B ($50 per share)
A telecom giant bought AOL mainly for its programmatic ad platforms, betting that carrier data plus ad tech could rival Google and Facebook.
2014-12-22 · acquisition · completed
Oracle → Datalogix $1.2B (reported estimate)
Datalogix linked offline purchase data to online ads. Oracle combined it with BlueKai to build a big third-party data business that faded as privacy rules tightened.
2014-11-11 · acquisition · completed
Yahoo → BrightRoll $640M (announced, cash)
Yahoo bought a leading programmatic video platform; BrightRoll's technology evolved into the Yahoo DSP.
2014-11-03 · acquisition · completed
Publicis Groupe → Sapient $3.7B (all-cash, $25 per share)
Publicis bought a digital consultancy to compete with Accenture and IBM, pushing agencies from making ads into rebuilding clients' technology.
2014-07-02 · acquisition · completed
Facebook → LiveRail
Facebook bought a video [[ssp]] to sell ads on other publishers' sites. It shut LiveRail's publisher business in 2016, an early sign that walled gardens struggle in the open web.
2014-05-14 · acquisition · completed (closed 2014-07-01)
Acxiom → LiveRamp $310M (all-cash)
A data broker bought a small "onboarding" start-up that matched offline customer files to online IDs. LiveRamp eventually became the whole company, and Acxiom's original business was sold to IPG.
2014-04-02 · ipo · completed
Public markets Rubicon Project
One of the first [[ssp|SSPs]] to go public. Rubicon later merged with Telaria and renamed itself Magnite.
2014-03-02 · acquisition · completed (closed 2014-03-06)
Comcast → FreeWheel $320M (reported; up to ~$375M with retention payments)
A cable giant bought the leading ad server for premium TV and video, a signal that TV ad sales were becoming software-driven long before [[ctv]] went mainstream.
2014-02-24 · acquisition · completed
Oracle → BlueKai $400M (reported estimate)
BlueKai ran a large [[dmp]] and [[third-party-data]] marketplace. It became the heart of Oracle's ad data business, which Oracle shut down a decade later.
2013-10-30 · ipo · completed
Public markets Criteo
The French [[retargeting]] specialist became one of the first pure ad tech companies to list in the US, showing investors that performance display could be a big business.
2013-09-09 · acquisition · completed
Twitter → MoPub $350M (all-stock)
Twitter bought a mobile ad exchange ahead of its IPO to grow ad revenue beyond its own app. It sold MoPub to AppLovin eight years later.
2013-07-28 · merger · terminated (closed 2014-05-08)
Publicis Groupe → Omnicom
The planned "Publicis Omnicom Group" would have been the largest agency company in the world. It collapsed over control and tax issues, and Omnicom only achieved that scale a decade later by buying IPG.
2013-02-28 · acquisition · completed
Facebook → Atlas (from Microsoft) $100M (reported estimate; not disclosed)
Facebook bought the ad server Microsoft got with aQuantive, aiming to measure ads across the web by people rather than cookies. It showed how quickly Microsoft's $6B bet had lost value.
2012-07-12 · acquisition · completed (closed 2013-03-26)
Dentsu → Aegis Group $5B (£3.16B cash offer)
Japan's biggest agency bought the UK media group behind Carat and iProspect, turning Dentsu into a global holding company overnight.
2012-05-18 · ipo · completed
Public markets Facebook
The largest tech IPO in US history at the time put a price on social advertising and forced Facebook to prove it could make money on mobile.
2011-06-13 · acquisition · completed
Google → Admeld $400M (reported; Google did not disclose the price)
Admeld helped publishers sell to many buyers at once. Google folded it into its exchange, strengthening its grip on the sell side; the US Justice Department cleared the deal.
2010-06-03 · acquisition · completed
Google → Invite Media $81M
The first big-tech purchase of a [[dsp]]. Invite Media's technology became DoubleClick Bid Manager, today's Display & Video 360.
2009-11-09 · acquisition · completed (closed 2010-05-27)
Google → AdMob $750M (all-stock)
Google bought the leading mobile ad network just as the iPhone app economy took off; AdMob remains Google's main [[in-app-advertising|in-app]] monetization product.
2009-09-15 · acquisition · completed
Adobe → Omniture $1.8B ($21.50 per share in cash)
Adobe paired its creative software with web analytics, the seed of Adobe's marketing cloud and a template for the martech suites that followed.
2007-05-18 · acquisition · completed (closed 2007-08-10)
Microsoft → aQuantive $6B (about $6B all-cash ($66.50 per share))
Microsoft's answer to Google–DoubleClick bought the Atlas ad server and agency Avenue A | Razorfish. Five years later Microsoft wrote off most of the value, a cautionary tale about ad tech integration.
2007-05-17 · acquisition · completed (closed 2007-07-13)
WPP → 24/7 Real Media $649M ($11.75 per share)
The world's biggest agency group bought its own ad tech company, a sign that holding companies wanted to own technology rather than just rent it.
2007-04-30 · acquisition · completed (closed 2007-07-11)
Yahoo → Right Media $680M (cash and stock, for the ~80% Yahoo did not already own)
Right Media ran one of the first open [[ad-exchange|ad exchanges]]. Yahoo's purchase was an early bet that ads would be traded like a marketplace rather than sold by phone.
2007-04-13 · acquisition · completed (closed 2008-03-11)
Google → DoubleClick $3.1B (all-cash)
Google bought the dominant [[ad-server|ad server]] for publishers and advertisers, the foundation of what became Google Ad Manager and later the centre of the US and EU ad tech antitrust cases.
2004-08-19 · ipo · completed
Public markets Google
Google went public on the back of search advertising, proving that auction-priced, performance-based ads could fund one of the world's largest companies.
2004-06-24 · acquisition · completed
AOL (Time Warner) → Advertising.com $435M (all-cash)
AOL bought what was then the largest third-party ad network, letting it sell ads across the wider web and not just on its own sites. Advertising.com later became the core of AOL's (and Verizon's) programmatic stack.