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’s latest Market Report covers the public and private markets during Q2 2020. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact capital markets and the global economy, Q2 2020 was a challenging quarter for M&A. Deal activity was down across the board, with Ad Tech and MarTech deal volume down approximately 70% relative to Q2 2019. Since slowing to a crawl in March of this year, deal making has yet to return to pre-COVID levels, as buyers across the Media/Marketing ecosystem have not yet shown a consistent appetite for deals, particularly at scaled valuations.Keep Reading

LUMA’s latest Market Report covers the public and private markets during Q1 2020. Amid the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the beginning of an oil price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia, and subsequent public market sell-off, Q1 2020 was a challenging quarter. Deal activity was down across the board, with Ad Tech and MarTech deals off ~50% and Digital Content deals off ~20%, relative to Q1 2019. Unsurprisingly, deal count fell off around March, as fallout from the pandemic became more widespread and the sell-off in the public markets was well underway.Keep Reading