We are pleased to announce that Vungle, a leading mobile performance advertising platform, has acquired GameRefinery, an industry-leading SaaS mobile gaming analytics company headquartered in Finland. GameRefinery’s Game Intelligence platform provides developers with retention and monetization insights through its cloud-based developer tools for world-class studios such as Zynga, King, Rovio, Ubisoft and more. The company’s deep contextual data sets across 160,000+ gaming apps bring unique and innovative targeting capabilities to Vungle’s platform, helping advertisers deliver contextually relevant campaigns and increase user acquisition performance in today’s privacy-focused, post-IDFA landscape.

GameRefinery also brings image recognition and creative tagging capabilities that will be leveraged by Vungle Creative Labs (VCL). Combining VCL’s extensive experience in cutting-edge creative and UA, with granular reporting on visual elements including styles and genre fit, provides industry-leading performance recommendations for its biggest customers.

Vungle CEO Jeremy Bondy stated, “Together, Vungle, GameRefinery, and Algolift offer the only platform that speaks to game and product teams in the development process, marketing, UA, and growth teams in the scaling stage, and data teams when measuring and refining outcomes.”

LUMA advised Vungle on the transaction.

We are pleased to announce that Otello (OSE: OTELLO) has entered into a definitive agreement to sell AdColony, an in-app marketplace for brands, to Digital Turbine (Nasdaq: APPS), for a total estimated consideration of $400 million. AdColony is a global leader in mobile game advertising and monetization, with a reach of more than 1.5 billion monthly users globally. AdColony’s mission is to drive business outcomes that matter for advertisers and publishers using its leading mobile technology, high-quality mobile ad experiences and leveraging its curated reach. AdColony is known throughout the mobile industry for its third-party verified viewability rates, exclusive Instant-Play™ and Aurora™ HD video technologies, rich media formats, global performance advertising business, programmatic marketplace, and extensive SDK footprint in the Top 1000 apps worldwide.

Digital Turbine is a global on-device mobile platform company that simplifies content discovery and delivers relevant content directly to consumer devices. Per Digital Turbine’s CEO, Bill Stone, “The ability for Digital Turbine to utilize AdColony’s unique mobile advertising solutions across our vast device distribution footprint unlocks significant new monetization opportunities for the combined company’s platform offerings. With the addition of AdColony, we will expand our collective experience, reach and suite of capabilities to benefit mobile advertisers and publishers around the globe. Performance-based spending trends by large, established brand advertisers present material upside opportunities for platforms with unique technology deployable across exclusive access to inventory.” The transaction is expected to close by the end of March 2021.

LUMA advised Otello on the transaction.

We’re proud to announce that Parse.ly, a top content analytics solution, has been acquired by WPVIP, the leading provider of enterprise WordPress and part of Automattic’s suite of innovative brands. Together, WPVIP and Parse.ly will offer an unparalleled enterprise content management, commerce, and analytics platform — with best-in-class content creation agility and the insights to understand the impact of those digital experiences. The acquisition of Parse.ly augments WPVIP’s content and analytics solutions, by incorporating Parse.ly’s capabilities for real-time content analytics and its personalized recommendation engine. Together, WPVIP and Parse.ly will lead a powerful enterprise ecosystem for an array of global brands including Salesforce, NBA, Condé Nast, Facebook, and Microsoft.

In addition to Parse.ly customers receiving access to the full suite of WPVIP offerings, current WPVIP customers will gain access to added features that allow users to take action on content analytics, dynamic audience segmentation, and AI-driven content recommendations. With the acquisition, WPVIP will provide additional investment, support staff, and development resources to Parse.ly customers. More than 800 combined enterprise customers worldwide will now have access to this expanded set of capabilities, including Spotify, CNN, The Atlantic, and Slack.

LUMA advised Parse.ly on the transaction.

We are pleased to announce that Magnite, the largest independent sell-side advertising platform, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire SpotX from RTL Group for $1.17 billion in cash and stock. SpotX is one of the leading platforms shaping CTV and video advertising globally.

Together, Magnite and SpotX will create the largest independent CTV and video advertising platform in the programmatic marketplace. The combined company will provide better support for sellers, create an alternative to the CTV advertising market’s largest players, and will greatly improve scale and efficiency for buyers.

Magnite’s expanded technical capabilities and teams will offer swift solutions that cater to a broader set of client needs, including sellers that are newer to the world of programmatic and those who have mature, programmatic-only operations. Likewise, the acquisition will make it easier for brands and agencies to buy premium CTV inventory at scale with standard features and a single, addressable pool of audiences.

LUMA believes we will see more deal activity in CTV as strategics default to inorganic growth initiatives in order to timely capitalize on the significant inflection in the sector brought about by the pandemic. Beneficiaries of this accelerated focus are likely to span a variety of companies including media, distribution, monetization, workflow, data and analytics.

LUMA advised Magnite on the transaction.

We are pleased to announce that Liftoff, a global performance-based mobile app marketing optimization platform, has reached a definitive agreement for a majority investment from private equity funds managed by Blackstone (NYSE:BX). This strategic partnership marks a new phase in Liftoff’s continuing mission to develop industry-leading technology and product solutions that help marketers grow their engaged user bases through initial and ongoing engagement efforts. Liftoff partners with mobile app marketers to grow their platforms globally, delivering more than one billion engaging ads each day to high-value users in more than 90 countries and across more than 500,000 mobile publishers. As content consumption increasingly shifts to mobile devices, Liftoff is well positioned to serve the high-growth mobile app ecosystem as a leader in programmatic user acquisition and retention. Blackstone’s investment will enable Liftoff to further accelerate investment priorities, expand its global footprint, and fuel future growth initiatives. LUMA advised Blackstone on the transaction.

We are pleased to announce that Beeswax, a SaaS programmatic ad buying platform, has agreed to be acquired by Comcast FreeWheel, a provider of comprehensive ad platforms for publishers, advertisers, and media buyers. Beeswax’s Bidder-as-a-Service™ platform gives brands, media companies, and advertising technology firms greater control, flexibility, and transparency over their programmatic advertising. Beeswax’s complementary capabilities will help expand and accelerate FreeWheel’s current programmatic technologies, improving their clients’ ability to trade inventory with automation. In particular, Beeswax’s bidding technology will allow FreeWheel users to access broader pools of inventory to fulfill complex campaign
requirements. LUMA advised Beeswax on the transaction.

We are pleased to announce that Experian, the global information services company is buying Tapad, a leading provider in digital identity resolution for marketers, from Telenor for approximately $280 million in cash. The acquisition will enhance Experian’s digital offerings for advertisers, agencies and publishers and particularly for Advanced Television, positioning Experian to take advantage of expansion in the market for digital-data advertising. LUMA advised Telenor on the transaction.