News 

MarTech Record: The Difference Between Ad Tech and Martech

Conor McKenna, Director at LUMA Partners, explains the difference between Ad Tech and Martech with MarTech Record’s On The Record. Today, ad tech and martech are trading at similar evaluations, but that wasn’t always the case. About a decade ago, there was a large gap between evaluations of advertising technology and marketing technology – marketing technology businesses were trading 5 to 10 times net revenue, whereas ad tech was trading close to just one times valuation, said Conor McKenna. McKenna is a director at Luma Partners, a strategic advisory firm with a singular focus on digital media and marketing.Keep Reading
LUMA Content 

Q3 2022 Market Report

Rampant inflation, rising interest rates, an escalation of the conflict in Europe, and the looming threat of a recession has continued to put pressure on the public markets and deal activity. It seems the only constant is uncertainty, with valuations and deal volumes suffering as a result. Uncertainty is also a challenge on industry-specific trends, as the Digital Media and Marketing ecosystem continues to work through shifting data and privacy restrictions, as well as the return to post-lockdown life.Keep Reading
LUMA Content 

World of DaaS: The Future of Ad Tech

Terry Kawaja, CEO of LUMA Partners, discuss the changes in the markets over the last few months and what they expect from the M&A landscape in the near term with Safegraph’s CEO Auren Hoffman. Together they explore the long-term outlook for consolidation in the media and advertising space and what the next innovative companies will appear in adtech. Click the link to listen to the conversation.Keep Reading
LUMA Content 

Q2 2022 Market Report

Q2 2022 Market Report Round-Up Amidst the worst H1 in 52 years for the S&P, the Digital Media and Marketing ecosystem has not been immune to the exogenous factors plaguing the broader economy. Ongoing inflation, rising interest rates, the continued conflict in Europe, and the threat of a recession at home have put pressure on public equities and raised market uncertainty, which is the biggest inhibitor of deal-making. Despite external challenges, the business fundamentals and underlying ecosystem trends in the Ad Tech, MarTech and Digital Content verticals remain strong.Keep Reading
LUMA Content 

The Evolution of Yahoo

Yahoo is one of the most storied brands in the internet since the earliest pioneer days. Its many transactions and ownership changes over the years reflected changing perspectives on the opportunity with this group of assets. In 2021 Apollo Management acquired the business from Verizon and installed media and technology veteran, Jim Lanzone, as CEO. In this fireside, we will explore what Jim sees in the opportunity and garner his insights into the game plan for value creation.Keep Reading
LUMA Content 

The State of Privacy and Identity

Sean Downey, VP of Google Marketing Platforms talks to Terence Kawaja and Brian Andersen about some of the changes that brands are facing today when it comes to digital marketing. At LUMA’s Digital Media Summit, Sean dives into the value of the modern-day consumer by connecting data, innovating with new technology and embracing a culture of experimentation.Keep Reading
LUMA Content 

Q1 2022 Market Report

Despite a challenging quarter in the public markets, the Digital Media and Marketing ecosystem showed continued strength in M&A and private financings. While other industries experienced a “post-honeymoon” quarter after a string of new, macro challenges, Digital Media and Marketing grew M&A throughout the quarter. Total M&A count was robust, experiencing 24% YoY growth since Q1 2021, with Digital Content the clear victor seeing more than 50% growth since last year. Deal activity fell short in scaled transactions (>$100mm), down nearly a third from the previous quarter (23 vs. 33).Keep Reading
LUMA Content 

2021 Full Year Market Report

LUMA is excited to announce the release of our Full Year 2021 Market Report! 2021 was yet another active year in the Digital Media and Marketing ecosystem. Between M&A, public market, and private financing activity, 2021 reflects a banner year for the ecosystem in many respects. We continue to observe notable trends driving investment and deal activity, best highlighted by “LUMA’s M&A Themes.” Our six themes – CTV, Mobile App, Data & Identity, Commerce Media, Audio, and “End-game Programmatic Consolidation” – have accounted for a disproportionate amount of M&A activity.Keep Reading
LUMA Content 

Q3 2021 Market Report

Q3 2021 Market Report Round-Up During Q3 2021, the Digital Media and Marketing ecosystem continued the pattern of strong growth relative to 2020. The sector showed significant breadth and depth in the marketplace with strong levels of M&A, Private Equity, and IPO activity. M&A deal count was robust across Ad Tech, MarTech, and Digital Content, as deal activity grew on a year-over-year basis. Scaled deal activity (>$100mm) reached new highs with 31 scaled deals across the three sub-sectors (compared to 28 in Q2 2021, and 62 in all of 2020).Keep Reading
LUMA Content 

Q2 2021 Market Report

OVERVIEW During Q2 2021, the Digital Media and Marketing ecosystem continued to exhibit significant momentum in deal making. M&A surged within Ad Tech, MarTech, and Digital Content, with massive year-over-year increases from the pandemic-induced nadir of Q2 2020. In both Ad Tech and MarTech, deal counts grew by more than 200% year-over-year. More broadly, scaled deal activity remained abundant this quarter, with 28 deals transacting at values greater than $100 million, and twelve deals greater than $1 billion dollars.Keep Reading
LUMA Content 

Q1 2021 Market Report

 Riding on the momentum from the end of 2020, Q1 2021 represented another strong quarter across the Digital Media and Marketing Ecosystem. We saw significant M&A and capital markets activity throughout the Ad Tech, MarTech and Digital Content sectors, as companies put the pandemic-induced lull of mid-2020 in the rearview mirror. M&A activity surged in Q1, well above Q1 2020, with ten, one billion-dollar-plus deals announced across Ad Tech, MarTech, and Digital Content. This was particularly notable for Ad Tech, which saw four billion-dollar-plus transactions in just this quarter, after five years without any M&A transactions over a billion.Keep Reading
LUMA Content 

State of Digital 2021

 After a wild 2020, LUMA is thrilled to be back with our annual State of Digital presentation, as presented at our State of Digital LIVE event on March 11, 2021. As always, we cover our latest views on the market, industry trends, and the future of the ecosystem with a specific focus on digital media. Highlights from the 2021 State of Digital include the following: A review of the highly active and dynamic public markets, including the robust IPO pipeline and increased SPAC activity. Details on a robust M&A market that continues to accelerate.Keep Reading
LUMA Content 

2020 Full Year Market Report

 Following significant challenges at the outset of the pandemic, 2020 ended on a very positive note, with both M&A and capital markets activity accelerating throughout Q4. M&A saw a full return to scaled transactions in Q4, with activity actually outpacing pre-pandemic levels across most sectors. Check out our new “LUMA’s M&A Themes” to better understand the key trends driving this increased momentum and their impact on future deal-making. In the public sector, the IPO market remained red hot, capping off one of the biggest years for US IPOs in the past two decades with more than $170Bn raised.Keep Reading
LUMA Content 

LUMA Digital Brief 029: Market Report Q3 2020

 LUMA’s latest Market Report covers the public and private markets during Q3 2020. Following a particularly challenging Q2 for M&A, Q3 marked the start of a turnaround as we witnessed the largest M&A quarter of 2020 throughout our coverage sectors. While overall volume was still down ~40% relative to Q3 2019, the sequential quarterly increase in scaled, strategic deal activity is a strong signal of confidence returning to the M&A market. Both Ad Tech and MarTech saw several notable scaled transactions and Digital Content led the way from a scaled-deal perspective, as Gaming and Streaming Audio drove strategic activity.Keep Reading
LUMA Content 

State of Mobile Apps

 LUMA Partner Dick Filippini and Freemium Economics author & Mobile Dev Memo Media Strategist Eric Seufert deliver high-level insights into the current state of the mobile apps economy. Together, they discuss the advertising opportunity in gaming, TikTok’s explosive growth, the state of play for in-app bidding, a review of leading creative formats, and what to expect as the market continues to mature.Keep Reading
LUMA Content 

LUMA Digital Brief 025 — Market Report Q3 2019

LUMA presents Digital Brief 025 — Market Report Q3 2019 LUMA’s latest Market Report highlights the public and private markets during Q3 2019. It was another strong quarter for M&A, with the highest deal volume over the last year. The digital content and D2C sectors were particularly strong, with significant quarter-to-quarter increases, while private equity buyers continue to be the most active, leading a number of $100M+ transactions in the quarter.Keep Reading
LUMA Content 

LUMA Digital Brief 024 — Market Report Q2 2019

LUMA presents Digital Brief 024 — Market Report Q2 2019 LUMA’s latest Market Report highlights the public and private markets during Q2 2019. It was a particularly strong quarter for M&A, with the most deal activity (both volume and value) over the last year. This was not limited to a single sector, as M&A activity was up across all coverage areas, Ad Tech, MarTech, Digital Content, and D2C. In the public markets, Ad Tech and MarTech both saw another quarter of growth, though there remain clear delineations between over-and-under performers in each sector.Keep Reading
LUMA Content 

LUMA Digital Brief 023 — Market Report Q1 2019

LUMA presents Digital Brief 023 — Market Report Q1 2019 LUMA’s latest Market Report highlights the public and private markets during Q1 2019. It was a strong quarter overall with increases in both M&A activity and public market values. M&A deal volume was up across Ad Tech, MarTech, and Digital Content, and was capped off with the surprise acquisition of Dynamic Yield by McDonald’s; a rare marketer acquisition of technology that will bring the fast-food giant’s personalization efforts in-house.Keep Reading
LUMA Content 

LUMA Digital Brief 022 — Market Report Q4 2018

LUMA presents Digital Brief 022 — Market Report Q4 2018. LUMA’s latest Market Report highlights the public and private markets during 2018. Despite a year marked by GDPR uncertainty and numerous data and privacy controversies, the big story last year was an increase in large-scale MarTech acquisitions. Following 2017, which had some major marketing clouds, such as Salesforce and Adobe, sitting on the sidelines and zero $1 billion deals, 2018 saw six MarTech deals over $1 billion.Keep Reading
News 

Beet.TV: Fragmentation Happens, So Get Used To It

AT SEA OFF THE COAST OF FRANCE — When Terence Kawaja first introduced the Lumascape, the visual map illustrating an alarming array of ad tech companies, he backed up the image with a call for a simpler world. But that simplification isn’t going to happen, the media finance expert now concedes. “Fragmentation is here to stay – fragmentation happens,” Luma’s CEO and co-founder tells Beet.TV. “There is so much proliferation of companies … cheap venture financing … I’ve stopped calling for consolidation; it will actually never happen. “There’s been some consolidation … but there’s more companies every year.Keep Reading