Over the past fortnight, the advertising technology industry has experienced distinct mergers and acquisitions, marking a significant shift from the first three weeks of the year, as reported by LUMA Partners in their recent statistics.
The notable transactions include Viant’s proposed acquisition of TVision for $40 million, which was announced shortly after JWX — formed from the merger of JW Player and Connatix — revealed its acquisition of True Anthem, a move that came to light just a day earlier.
These transactions were confirmed only a week after MiQ announced two separate M&A activities over consecutive months. Paul Silver, the corporate development head at the programmatic trading expert, described the current market as a “buyer’s market,” during an interview with Digiday.
This perspective is echoed in the most recent quarterly earnings report from LUMA Partners, a leading investment bank in the sector, which highlights a significant slowdown in deal-making across digital media and marketing technology in Q1 2026.
The reduced rate of transactions is attributed to uncertainties in the macroeconomic landscape and ongoing geopolitical tensions, which have dampened both strategic activity and investor confidence. However, LUMA Partners predicts that such activities will “normalize” once geopolitical issues are resolved.
“In the meantime, we expect strategic players to remain active, selectively targeting opportunities to enhance their unique capabilities, venture into key growth areas, and prioritize AI-driven results,” states the report, published earlier this week.
The findings indicate that, following a relatively strong finish to 2025, total M&A activity decreased by 11% year-on-year, amounting to 103 transactions, with deals exceeding $100 million dropping by 30%.
The decline was not uniform across the various sectors; ad tech demonstrated a relatively strong performance in terms of transaction numbers, showing a slight year-on-year increase, although activity regarding larger deals plummeted, with only one major transaction occurring compared to six the previous year.
In contrast, the martech sector faced a wider downturn, with a 14% decrease in total deals and a staggering 60% drop in larger transactions during the observation period, resulting from tighter capital availability and more discerning buyers.
The digital content sector reported the steepest fall in overall deal volume, decreasing by 16%. However, it also saw an uptick in significant consolidations, including major deals like Paramount’s $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
The recent activity reflects a clear strategy among buyers: they are focusing on acquiring unique capabilities, especially in artificial intelligence, data, and analytics. Both ad tech and martech acquisitions have emphasized incrementality measurement, identity resolution, and AI-enhanced performance optimization. Concurrently, content and platform companies are aiming for scale and vertical integration, highlighting the continued significance of proprietary intellectual property and distribution in an increasingly fragmented media ecosystem.
The caution in the market was mirrored in public trading; LUMA’s ad tech and martech indices dropped by 21% and 27% respectively in Q1, drastically underperforming the Nasdaq’s 7% recession despite generally robust Q4 earnings that either met or surpassed projections. This disparity underscores ongoing worries regarding future growth, valuation pressures, and specific sector volatility.
In this context, private investment continues to concentrate on AI. Major funding rounds, such as OpenAI’s $122 billion raise and Runway’s $315 million Series E, highlight that while conventional deal-making may be slowing, the demand for AI-driven platforms is actively reshaping the competitive landscape.
