Nexstar Media Group, Inc. announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire LKQD Technologies, a leading independent video advertising infrastructure company.

The pending deal is said to be worth approximately $90 million.

The transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to Nexstar’s operating results and free cash flow, does not materially alter the Company’s leverage position and will be financed with cash generated from operations and funds provided by the Company’s revolving credit facility.

LKQD provides enterprise digital video advertising technology infrastructure for publishers and advertisers on all screens reaching approximately 115 million US online video viewers across desktop, mobile-web, mobile-app and connected TVs. Designed for flexibility, scalability and speed, LKQD’s Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) technology provides end-to-end systems for ad serving, mediation, programmatic auctions and advanced reporting— allowing publishers to book, manage, optimize and track their operations in real-time from one dashboard.

“Our acquisition of LKQD is consistent with our long-term strategic and financial growth objectives for Nexstar Digital as we unify, expand and invest in our technology platform to optimize results for our clients, while developing new revenue opportunities,” says Perry A. Sook, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nexstar. “By adhering to our disciplined acquisition and integration criteria, we are acquiring the leading, fast-growing, profitable, online video advertising business at an attractive, accretive valuation. Looking ahead, we continue to evaluate additional digital investments and select accretive transactions to drive the next phase of growth and success for Nexstar Digital.”

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According to a statement emailed to MMW, the combination of YuMe and RhythmOne will bring together demand-side and supply-side strengths in the fast growing segments of mobile, video, connected TV (“CTV”) and programmatic trading.

The combined marketplace is anticipated to be a top five comScore ranked marketplace that will facilitate seamless, transparent connections between thousands of advertisers and a massive supply of brand-safe inventory.

Additionally, we’re told that the RhythmOne platform is purpose-built to meet a broad range of campaign objectives, providing turnkey solutions for both brand and performance campaigns. Furthermore, the platform will provide advertisers with a credible, scaled and independent alternative to entrenched players.

“Acquiring YuMe accelerates RhythmOne’s strategy to build a unified programmatic platform with unique audiences of differentiated quality at scale,” said Ted Hastings, CEO of RhythmOne. “Through YuMe, RhythmOne gains access to premium video supply including emerging, high-value connected TV inventory, unique customer insights, cross-screen targeting technology and established demand relationships. We believe this combination will give RhythmOne the resources, relationships and talent to drive value for its shareholders, and true a return on investment.”

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Blackfox.io, if you’re not familiar, is a leading mobile advertising network with a strong worldwide affiliate network with historical revenues over the past four years having topped $2.5 million annually.

“Blackfox experienced explosive growth in 2016 with over a dozen premium and big-budget advertising customers such as Symantec (owner of Lifelock), Tiger Media Inc, Cliq Digital (all three companies are publically listed with revenues over $300M),” reads a statement emailed to MMW.

These and other direct Blackfox customers have used the Blackfox platform to run major mobile ad sales campaigns for such companies as Walmart, Nutri-Systems, Old Navy, LivingSocial, Amazon, GoDaddy, Macy’s, LendingTree and others.

“What makes Blackfox an extraordinary purchase is at the heart of this company is its strength in digital marketing,” a media release concludes. “This acquisition will heavily fuel our advertising campaigns for our current and future portfolio of products to achieve double digit revenue growth.”

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According to a provided statement, the acquisition will strengthen the ability of Accenture Interactive to deliver data-driven creative and design end-to-end digital customer experiences that help brands stand out and stay relevant.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed as of this writing.

Wire Stone brings together a blend of creative talent, design-led strategy, deep marketing expertise and technology roots to solve clients’ creative and business challenges. The agency is known for creating integrated campaigns and immersive experiences that leverage the latest technologies to tell compelling brand stories. Its services span brand positioning, customer research and data-driven insights, marketing strategy, execution and promotions, creative design and technology enablement for digital experiences.

With the acquisition of Wire Stone, Accenture Interactive says it can scale its capabilities and talent in marketing and creativity.

“Great experiences begin with great stories. Wire Stone’s proven ability to tell engaging stories by blending creativity and technology, together with Accenture’s scale and business transformation expertise, is a unique and powerful combination,” said Glen Hartman, who leads Accenture Interactive in North America.

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This marks Merkle’s second European acquisition of 2017, following that of Spain-based, digital analytics consultancy, DIVISADERO, in April.

“These strategic acquisitions are designed to strengthen Merkle’s foothold as a global people-based marketing leader,” the official announcement reads.

Building a scaled predictive analytics capability in Europe is critical in fulfilling Merkle’s position as the authority in people-based marketing. Founded in 2012, Aquila Insight’s skills in data analytics and the technology used to support the delivery of insight will boost Merkle’s capabilities and scale in the UK and European market.

“The Aquila Insight team has a great approach to building, growing, and delivering impactful results for their clients through the use of sophisticated analytical methods. As we continue to expand our footprint in Europe, predictive analytics needs to be at the heart of our growth strategy, and Aquila will boost our capabilities in this area,” says David Williams, president and CEO of Merkle. “The acquisition of Aquila is an important and exciting opportunity to accelerate our data leadership in the UK.”

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HGGC’s investment will help etouches “significantly expand its business and further invest in its market-leading cloud platform to win a greater share of the $6 billion Event Management Software (EMS) and venue sourcing market.”

“We are very excited to partner with HGGC as we continue to enhance our offering and capitalize on the large whitespace in the market,” Oni Chukwu, CEO of etouches, said in a written statement. “The HGGC team’s experience in marketing technology gives them a very sophisticated understanding of the opportunity in front of us as enterprises transition from single-point solutions to a suite of solutions that manage the entire event lifecycle.”

Throughout its growth over the past nine years, etouches has maintained the highest level of service and quality, winning multiple industry awards including Superior Customer Service, Best Event Management Technology, Best Event Management Software, and Best Event Management Solutions. etouches was also named Best Place to Work in several industry leading publications while achieving a revenue retention rate over 100%.

“Under Oni’s leadership, etouches has become a premier provider of EMS and venue sourcing solutions, more than doubling revenues since 2014,” said Steve Young, Co-Founder and Managing Director of HGGC. “We’re confident that the additional resources we can bring to bear will accelerate etouches’ already impressive growth and outpace the competition. Because we see etouches as a growth investment just starting to reach its potential, we’ve made this acquisition without leverage and are putting cash on the balance sheet to ensure nothing slows the company’s trajectory.”

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We’re told that the deal will add powerful new mobile marketing capabilities to the Clutch platform.

“Marketers have been pressed into using sales platforms that were never the right tool for the job, and because of that, they’ve had to bolt on additional solutions to solve new needs as they arise,” said Clutch CEO Ned Moore. “With this acquisition, the Clutch platform is the first to support the marketer with a comprehensive view of customers across all buying and marketing channels. The addition of Persio’s intelligent mobile platform will allow us to deliver these experiences instantly and with greater context.”

The transaction puts Clutch in a position to capture a bigger share of the $32 billion marketing technology industry, just as brands are increasingly looking to automate mobile solutions to deliver shipping notices, rewards, coupons, brand messages, and more.

“Clutch built its business on unifying data to give marketers an actionable, complete view of their customers, and blending our capabilities with theirs is just natural,” said Persio co-founder Nick Doulas. “Together we can integrate customer data into virtually every marketing activity, from loyalty and gift to direct mail or e-commerce, and of course, mobile.”

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According to a provided release, the combination of Adobe and TubeMogul will create the first end-to-end independent advertising and data management solution that spans traditional TV and digital formats, simplifying what has been a complex and fragmented process for the world’s biggest brands.

The planned integration with Adobe Audience Manager will allow marketers to unify audience planning and media buying for video advertising.

“The addition of TubeMogul will further strengthen Adobe’s leadership in digital marketing and advertising technology,” said Brad Rencher, executive vice president and general manager of Digital Marketing for Adobe. “We are excited to extend Adobe Marketing Cloud’s search, display and social planning and delivery solutions to help our customers maximize their video advertising investments across screens.”

“The acquisition of TubeMogul enables Adobe to help marketers navigate the most important development in advertising in 50 years—the dispersal of consumer video consumption beyond live, prime-time television and into mobile video, OTT and other on-demand channels,” adds Scott Denne, research analyst with 451 Research. “With an already extensive footprint in digital marketing, the addition of TubeMogul gives Adobe a technology that addresses that largest portion of most marketing budgets—TV advertising—and strengthens Adobe’s pitch to CMOs through an offering that will equip data-driven TV campaigns.”

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According to a provided statement, the acquisition will make integration with point-of-sale systems easier and faster to deploy as well as cheaper to maintain.

These combined capabilities also firmly position SessionM at the forefront of the fast-growing omnichannel marketing automation market. The acquisition follows SessionM’s $35M strategic funding investment last September.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“We work with some of the biggest retailers and QSRs in the world. All of them want fast data that enables them to take fast action,” said SessionM co-founder and CEO Lars Albright. “With our platform, a marketer can decide who they want to target, communicate the offer across any channel and recognize the resulting purchase at point-of-sale in real time. Ultimately, marketers want to offer customers things they’re interested in buying. To do that, marketers need a firm grasp of what each individual customer has already bought. This integration makes our customer profiles smarter and more dynamic. That makes our messaging more relevant and timely. The ultimate benefit is greater loyalty and retention metrics for our clients. This acquisition pulls it all together seamlessly.”

The post SessionM Makes Move at POS with Acquisition of LoyalTree appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Under the terms of the agreement, MobilityWare acquires the software company’s successful franchise property, ‘Jigsaw Puzzle‘, as well as ‘ColorArt: Coloring Book for Adults‘.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed publicly as of this writing.

“Acquisitions are core to our long-term growth plan. Given the nature and audience of their games, Critical Hit Software was an ideal fit,” said Jeff Erle, CEO of MobilityWare. “There is significant audience cross-over between all of our games, which we believe will yield significant benefits in terms of marketing and cross-promotion.”

Offering over 10,000 HD puzzles, Jigsaw Puzzle is currently the most searched app for jigsaw puzzles on the Apple App Store, and is also available on Android devices through Google Play as well as the Amazon’s Kindle Fire, where it is particularly popular.

“Having conceived of, developed and nurtured Jigsaw Puzzle from the beginning, it is like our child,” mused Brian Farwell, co-founder of Critical Hit Software. “We were only willing to sell to a company that shared our passion for the game and had the resources to make Jigsaw Puzzle even more successful than we could. We feel comfortable knowing that our loyal players are in good hands.”

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