M&A in adtech, martech and digital advertising saw strong growth in 2025, up some 13% YoY – and expectations are 2026 will surpass that.
But the emphasis this year will be more on strategic deals and less on speculative ones, driven by the changes that are impacting adtech.
The primary of these is, of course, the emergence of AI and agentic AI, and the potential for it to challenge some of traditional applications of adtech – from synthetic audience utilization for audience measurement to displacement of SaaS platforms. This was brought into focus recently in the legal services area with the introduction of new tools from Anthropic that broadly were seen as competing with existing SaaS applications and signaling a potential broader market shift away from them.
And while adtech as a category has grown significantly since Covid, questions exist as to what the ceiling for growth in some areas might be. Segmentation, planning and buying technology abounds, for example, but even with growth in the ad market, the number of competitors vying for essentially a finite number of dollars continues to grow.
And in audience measurement, a recent CIMM study found that the U.S. television and video advertising marketplace could probably support at least two national, currency-grade TV measurement solutions, given the overall size of the market and current levels of investment.
There are, of course, more than two measurement providers in market.
Within this environment, strategic buyers will dominate, as they look for ways to reduce operating costs, build geo expansion, acquire innovative tech, enter new vertical markets, gain new data sets, or just acquire talent.
Capital is plentiful in private markets, and PE firms, as well as corporate buyers, will also be active as they look to make synergistic acquisitions to their portfolio. The focus here, though, will mostly be on ROI, typically with returns expected within 3 to 5 years.
Other factors impacting the market include:
- Smaller adtech firms are holding out longer than their original exit plan. Most are finding that either valuations are not big enough or there is not enough interest
- The larger research houses are not buying as much as before. The dream of a small indie firm selling to Nielsen, for example, may be over. The result will be more and more partnerships developed and asset deals with complex valuations created. As smaller partnerships develop into mergers, investment firms will take more interest
- The viewer shift to CTV has resulted in a tech buying binge in video serving tech and measurement. Retailers are reacting by owning their own tech stack, as seen in the Walmart/Vizio deal.
- Agencies are combining to give them bench strength for acquiring the tech they will need to stay relevant. They will continue to acquire as needed and will especially look to acquire small unique proprietary tech to give them an edge
Against this backdrop, successful exits will come about by creating value-add through connecting the dots with other providers of data/tech. Compatibility and flexibility will be key as will, of course, always, patience.
In partnership with Terry Kent, President, The Kent Advisory Group, DBC Consulting provides M&A/sale guidance, growth strategy development and partner identification support to the Ad and Marketing industries.