May 14, 2012 MOBILE MARKETING AND ADVERTISING M&A

In Berkery Noyes’ first quarter 2012 Online and Mobile press release, we discussed M&A surrounding mobile marketing and advertising. Digital marketing, examined as a subset of the e-marketing and search segment, experienced a seven percent increase in M&A activity in the first three months of 2012.

In particular, we noted SingTel’s acquisition of Amobee for $321 million. Amobee just made its own acquisition, buying AdJitsu from Cooliris nearly a week ago. This acquisition will allow Amobee to leverage AdJitsu’s 3D mobile ad technology. One key aspect of product development in mobile advertising, as indicated by Amobee’s acquisition of AdJitsu, is for companies to make ads more interactive – with the end goal of increasing consumer engagement and brand loyalty.

There have been other recent deals in this space as well. For example, Monster Offers and Ad Shark announced last Wednesday that they have agreed to merge. Ad Shark is a subsidiary of Iconsys, an app technology developer. This transaction indicates a strategic fit between a daily deal analytics aggregator (Monster Offers) and a mobile advertising platform (Ad Shark).

With the ongoing need for technological innovation this nascent market, M&A provides a logical pathway for companies to attain the necessary expertise and cutting edge tools that will place them in a strong position going forward.