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It was a difficult year for dealmakers to describe. Early on, the pandemic made the notion of corporate takeovers seem, for a few months, like something from a lost era. But then came a burst of activity like few had ever seen before, even as the health crisis raged. Amid the twists and turns, the single biggest thing on merger advisers’ minds can be summed up in four letters: SPAC. To view the SPAC LUMAscape, click here. Click the button to read the article.Keep Reading

Norwegian telco Telenor sold cross-device company Tapad to Experian in a transaction advised by LUMA Partners. Experian is acquiring 100% of Tapad for a cash consideration of roughly $280 million. Although Telenor made some use of its Tapad assets over the years, including using Tapad’s tech to drive sales and customer acquisition for Telenor’s own products, Telenor primarily operated as a stand-alone data business. So, what does Experian get out of the deal? Click the button to read the article.Keep Reading

The uncertainty about the final outcome of the race for the White House is a temporary situation. But the condition that resulted in delayed and confused results may have a more lasting impact on what advertising, media, marketing and technology businesses face over the next four years.Keep Reading

Digital media and marketing-focused investment bank LUMA Partners has released its Market Report for Q3 of 2020. Covering the performances of both public and private markets, the report recorded a slight improvement from the troubling results of Q2. For the LUMA’s Q3 2020 Market Report , click here Click the button to read the article.Keep Reading

Apple may have delayed a big change to the way advertisers can get user data from iOS devices – but the change will still be profound for advertisers. More than that, however, the change could have a destructive effect on sections of the overall economy, right when many businesses are suffering from the effects of COVID-19. That is the assessment of a seasoned digital media deal-maker and trends-watcher. Beet.TV interviews LUMA Partners’ CEO Terence Kawaja on his assessment of Apple’s planned change to IDFA (Identity For Advertisers), which will be made opt-in only on the user end.Keep Reading

CEO Terence Kawaja was spurred to action following nationwide unrest and BLM protests. Going on the reasoning that one useful way of helping the Black community is by supporting Black-owned businesses, Kawaja decided to create a new Lumascape to identify those very firms. The result is the aptly named Black LUMAscape, which debuts today. Click the button to read the full article.Keep Reading

Despite online audiences and engagement spiking amid global stay-at-home orders, the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has not spared the digital ad market. The pandemic has laid waste to bottom lines and upped the pressure for companies to bulk up or bow out. Yet despite it all, some players are still finding ways to thrive. Click the button to review Terence Kawaja, Founder and CEO of noted investment bank LUMA Partners, thoughts on how AdTech will fare amid this environment.Keep Reading

Terry Kawaja, CEO and Founder of LUMA Partners, on how the pandemic will change how we consume media and its effect on trends and advertising spending. Click the button to listen to the discussion.Keep Reading

Terence Kawaja, CEO of LUMA Partners talks about the early days of the CTV streaming competition with Bloomberg’s Lisa Abramowicz and Paul Sweeney.Keep Reading

As 2019—and the decade—draw to a close, the media industry has witnessed a host of closures, fire sales and a rapidly accelerating number of mergers in ad tech. Many have dubbed this as the end of the golden era of ad tech, or the ad network, and the beginning of a more Darwinist era where only the strongest in the sector will survive. Click the button to check out Adweek article.Keep Reading

Terence Kawaja, CEO of LUMA Partners talks about growing digital and streaming competition with Bloomberg’s Lisa Abramowicz and Paul Sweeney.Keep Reading

Direct-to-consumer brands were born out of — or so founders say — a desire to do everything, cutting out middlemen like retail partners and establishing direct connections with customers that create a feedback loop of insight-fueled product development. The goal was to build better brands with fewer hands in the pot. But online growth has proven to be far from limitless.Keep Reading

WatchMojo Founder, Ashkan Karbasfrooshan attended LUMA’s Digital Media Summit in New York City, New York. The series consists of published interviews with Peter Horan, Robert Norman, Farhad Massoudi, Jim VandeHei, Sean Alford, Ed Laczynski, John Durham, Peyman Nilforoush, Jack Myers, Bernard Gershon, and Pam Horan.Keep Reading

Last month, Accenture Interactive snapped up independent creative agency Droga5 in its biggest acquisition to date, following similar moves it has made in recent years to become a stronger competitor to ad agencies. But that acquisition spree is over for now as the company turns its attention to organizing its employees around the world, said Nikki Mendonça, global president of Accenture Interactive Operations at LUMA’s Digital Media Summit.Keep Reading

Q1 2019 in a nutshell: Ad tech isn’t doing as poorly as you’d think (all things considered), TV and data are colliding, DTC is sizzling, private equity is still gung-ho on M&A, and so are the marketing clouds. It’s not a bad report card, despite a general sense of caution and trepidation about macro factors in the economy, said Terry Kawaja, CEO and Founder of investment bank LUMA Partners.Keep Reading

AdExchanger’s highlights key trends from LUMA’s Brian Andersen’s presentation from the 2019 Industry Preview conference in NYC.Keep Reading

Beet.TV turns 13 and digital elites including LUMA’s Terry Kawaja highlight their journalistic achievements in the digital space.Keep Reading

“On TV And Video” is an AdExchanger column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video. Today’s column is written by Terence Kawaja, CEO & Founder at LUMA. Allbirds. Warby Parker. Brandless. Peloton. Dollar Shave Club. Over the past several years, an explosion of relatively young startups has garnered significant market share from major brands, some of which had built up their brand equity over decades. These direct-to-consumer brands – alternatively referred to as D2C or DTC – have done just what the name implies: cut out the middle man to go directly to the consumer.Keep Reading

LUMA CEO Terry Kawaja gave one of the most provocative talks at the Associate of National Advertisers’ annual “Masters of Marketing” conference. He sits down with AdAge to break down why he’s bullish on the direct-to-consumer trend.Keep Reading

LUMA CEO Terence Kawaja, whose LUMAscapes showing the vast jumble of marketing-tech players have been staples at marketing conferences for years, unveiled his latest creation at the ANA Masters of Marketing Conference in Orlando on Thursday. The D2C LUMAscape shows direct-to-consumer startups that have been eating away at big established behemoths like Procter & Gamble Co.Keep Reading

It was the week that the TV industry sounded the alarms. Work together. Change who you are. Or die at the hands of FANG. Prominent media M&A banker Terry Kawaja, CEO of LUMA Partners, gathered 80-plus TV and digital executives at a dinner aimed at tackling some of TV’s thorniest issues in light of the growing FANG power.Keep Reading

The ad-tech sector has taken it on the chin over the last couple years, with the ever-growing dominance of Facebook and Google, early-stage investors impatient for an exit and increased public scrutiny over the use of personal data for ad targeting.Keep Reading

AdExchanger’s podcast last week had an interview with LUMA Partners’ founder Terry Kawaja. You probably know a little about him because of his famously crowded LUMAscape slide, which features all the old-time ad tech companies that got a piece of the action between advertiser and publisher in the media buying business. You may notice that many of the companies on that slide are gone. And their demise has probably enriched Kawaja, who seems preternaturally able to spot trends.Keep Reading

Terence Kawaja, chief executive at investment bank LUMA Partners, believes an immediate impact will include US telecoms provider Comcast (which also owns NBCUniversal) tabling an offer for 21st Century Fox, to rival that of the existing proposal by Disney, with others to follow.Keep Reading

Last week, Sorrell publicly stated that he would be “starting again” after he left the company, leading many to speculate about the potential of a new enterprise for the adman. ​Speaking to LUMA Partners chief executive Terence Kawaja at the 2018 Digital Media Summit in New York yesterday, Sorrell gave some clarity on what he would do with what he described as his “fresh start.” CityA.M.Keep Reading

Publishers like to pretend that consumers can’t live without content – but if 95% of media brands disappeared tomorrow, no one would care, said Rafat Ali, CEO and founder of travel publisher Skift, at LUMA’s Digital Media Summit in New York City on Tuesday.Keep Reading

Every couple of years, marketing observers play a parlor game called “The Ad Tech Shakeout Cometh,” in which they pontificate about the impending decimation of the ad-tech industry.Keep Reading

As Luma Partners’ Brian Andersen pointed out in his Industry Preview closing keynote this year, CDP vs. DMP is “not an or … it’s an and.” They do different things.Keep Reading

Simply put, these are your recommended action items for taking advantage of the biggest movements sweeping the digital marketing landscape in 2018. Good luck!Keep Reading

When Terry Kawaja takes in the proceedings at CES, he’s not focused on the “flashy consumer-facing stuff that we see on the show floor.” To the Founder and CEO of investment banking firm Luma Partners, it’s all about sub-trends.Keep Reading

2018 will see the same amount of deal activity as 2017 as the field of potential buyers expands, predicts Luma Partners’ Brian Andersen.Keep Reading

If you spend any time on Twitter and follow any media industry people, you’ll often come away dizzy and fairly certain that every media company is buying everyone. It started a year ago when AT&T announced it had reached an agreement to buy Time Warner. Things really turned upside down when 21st Century Fox — just three years after trying to buy Time Warner — signaled it wanted to sell some assets to Disney. Then on Thursday, it was reported that Comcast may buy some of Fox. Or Verizon may.Keep Reading

2017 State of People-Based Measurement Study Pinpoints Person-Level Data as Key to Understanding the Omnichannel Consumer Journey.Business WireKeep Reading

Whether they’re listening to a panel, chatting in the hallways or sitting in an airplane on their way to Cologne, Germany, Dmexco attendees will be bombarded by the Lumascape this week. The Lumascape is a series of charts that organize the madness of ad tech by grouping together similar companies on a single page. But before the charts from investment bank Luma Partners racked up more than 6 million views on the company’s website and spawned endless debate about fragmentation in the ad industry, it was merely a Powerpoint presentation given at an industry event.Keep Reading

Digital offers more precise measurement than most channels, which has helped move the industry from an art to a science, according to Brian Andersen of LUMA Partners.Keep Reading

Who would ever have thought that the world’s biggest festival for celebrating creativity in marketing would have ended up discussing artificial intelligence, blockchain, and cognitive technologies?Keep Reading

LUMA Partners clocked 13 ad tech deals this quarter with 11 acquisitions valued at more than $100 million, a pace similar to its M&A category results for every quarter over the past year.Keep Reading

Brian Andersen, a partner at LUMA, will read the tea leaves on marketing clouds and omnichannel marketing at Industry Preview on January 18 in New York City.Keep Reading

After demystifying the multi-billion digital marketing industry in a presentation last year, the investment bank LUMA Partners has just released its annual State of Digital Marketing presentation.Keep Reading

LUMA Partners released its latest report analyzing M&A and investment highlights in the marketing automation sector.Keep Reading

Terry Kawaja sits down with Michael Kassan to talk about the industry-encompassing LUMAscapes, charts that plot all the intermediators between advertisers and publishers in the marketplace.Keep Reading

The threats are mounting. With challenges like viewability, fraud and ad blocking rising, the online ad industry could risk falling, just as Rome’s empire did before it.Keep Reading

Last year was a good year for mergers and acquisitions (M&A). That’s according to the Q1 2016 Marketing Report released by LUMA Partners, a strategic advisory and boutique investment bank. LUMA also follows and maps the growth of various digital sectors — from mobile, to gaming, to martech.Keep Reading

Study Finds Only 40% of Digital Buys Going to Working Media.Keep Reading

2015 wasn’t the best time for an ad tech company to tap the public markets. And 2016 seems like it will be equally uncertain – one need only look at the strange ongoing saga of AppNexus to see that. But it’s an overstatement to say that all ad tech companies are in trouble, according to Brian Andersen of LUMA Partners. He will speak Wednesday at AdExchanger’s Industry Preview conference about the ad tech-mar tech convergence and examine what the future holds.Keep Reading

“They’re the sort of boring, block-and-tackling kind of guys that are not paying a lot [for acquisitions], but then turning them into hugely profitable businesses that are growing,” says Terence Kawaja, CEO of LUMA Partners.Keep Reading

If you want to get a handle on what’s happening with TV and the state of the digital video market, investment bank LUMA Partners’ CEO Terence Kawaja delivered another of his epic presentations at VidCon last month on exactly that.Keep Reading

Meanwhile, data from LUMA Partners, a strategic advisory firm focused on digital media, tells a similar story for the U.S.Keep Reading

The closing session at our last MarTech Conference in San Francisco was an all-star fireside chat, “Follow the Martech Money: VCs, IPOs, and M&A”, with three leading venture capitalists and one of the most influential investment bankers in the marketing tech space, Brian Andersen ChiefmartechKeep Reading

It is with great pleasure that I announce a major expansion of the LUMA partnership. Joining LUMA Partners in our West Coast offices are Mark Greenbaum (second from left) and Dick Filippini (far left); two very experienced bankers from GCA Savvian.Keep Reading

There are over 2,500 companies on the many advertising- and marketing-tech industry landscape slides produced by investment bank LUMA Partners, from display to search to video to native. Yet LUMA’s own analysis is that little more than one in 20 will likely exit for more than $75 million.Keep Reading

While advertising-supported digital media is quickly growing, there are much larger opportunities for adtech companies. This exists in the total addressable market (TAM). This includes e-commerce, retail, e-payments, marketing automation and SAS, says Terence Kawaja, CEO and co-founder of the boutique investment bank LUMA Partners, in this interview with Beet.TV.Keep Reading

The founder and CEO of LUMA Partners LLC neatly separated all the major players into two sets, and for about a half an hour Kawaja explained how they’re different, how they’re the same and how ultimately they will work with each other.Keep Reading

If the digital advertising people getting high on “programmatic” trading are to access the $70 billion US TV ad market this way, they had better develop some empathy first, says one of the industry’s leading media finance advisors. LUMA Partners CEO Terence Kawaja says TV ad trading, historically reliant on broad demographic targeting, and digital trading, typically using laser-like scientific targeting, are “in two very different places”. So digital executives trying to unlock TV using programmatic mechanisms must treat TV buyers “in a manner that they’re used to”.Keep Reading

Every good story needs a hero. Back when I wrote The Search, that hero was Google – the book wasn’t about Google alone, but Google’s narrative worked to drive the entire story.Keep Reading

According to Gartner, by 2015 the technology budget of CMOs will likely exceed that of CIOs. There is no question that marketing has become more data-driven and technology-driven than in the past. “Analytics,” “algorithms,” “optimization” – terms that in the past were typically relegated to the cubicles of specialized marketing analysts – are now part of the daily conversation in the CMO suite. Much has been written about audience targeting, programmatic buying, real-time bidding, data management, etc., showcasing impressive advances made in advertising over the past few years.Keep Reading

Terence Kawaja, CEO of Luma Partners, is convinced that the digital advertising market is expanding through new start-ups.Keep Reading

VC-backed ad tech firms have arguably inflicted one big mess on digital advertising.Keep Reading

In the technology world, big companies that buy smaller ones often will map out dozens of potential acquisition targets. Why shouldn’t the start-ups and their investors be able to size up the potential buyers? Now they can.Keep Reading

The constant battle between TV viewers who want to watch their favorite shows when and where they want broadcast and cable networks that want to maintain their lucrative linear-TV business model is just the tip of a digital media iceberg. Fact is, people want to view all kinds of content, whether it’s TV shows, movies, games, or blogs and magazine stories, wherever they want.Keep Reading