Marketing and Advertising Industry Report Mid-Year Review 2025
Current State: Through the first half of 2025, global marketing and advertising M&A activity has softened, with total deal volume down approximately 15% year-over-year. This decrease has been driven by macro uncertainty from tariffs, uneven economic signals, and geopolitical volatility.
Current Trends: Strategic acquirers continue to dominate activity, with a focus on portfolio realignment, AI integration, and expansion into growth markets. Sponsor participation is also increasing as dry powder levels and pressure to return capital drive deployment.
Outlook: Momentum is expected to pick up into the next year, supported by strong corporate balance sheets, favorable financing conditions, and a growing backlog of sponsor-owned assets poised for exit. While macro and policy risks will continue to influence market sentiment, the combination of ample capital and improving deal pipelines points toward a constructive environment for M&A into next year.
OfferFit (www.offerfit.ai) was acquired by Braze (NAS: BRZE) for $325 million on June 2, 2025. OfferFit is a developer of an AI-based self-learning decision engine designed to make promotions profitable. The company’s engine allows users to divide customers into different segments and find a suitable offer for each segment using machine learning, enabling business owners to send personalized offers to customers and continuously learn from customers’ responses.
Willhaben (www.willhaben.at/iad) was acquired by Sprints through an estimated $259.5 million LBO on April 30, 2025. The transaction values the company at $519 million. Through this potential transaction, the company intends to strengthen its position in the Austrian market, maintain excellence in its core verticals and expand its offerings to better serve the evolving needs of buyers and sellers. Willhaben is a developer of an advertising marketplace application software designed to offer up-to-date classified ads and buy and sell products online. The company’s platform facilitates buying and selling of goods such as fashion items, furniture, used cars, properties, electronics, and household goods, and provides online advertising services, thereby enabling customers to safely, and conveniently find their home, and buy or sell things they no longer need.
Symbiosys (www.symbiosys.ai) was acquired by DoorDash (NAS: DASH) for $175 million on June 11, 2025. The acquisition will help to expand offsite advertising capabilities across search, social, and display with closed-loop measurement. Symbiosys is an operator of a next-generation retail media platform intended to extend the reach of registered mobile numbers to performance channels and drive incremental traffic and sales. The company’s game-changing technology platform is designed to unlock the middle of the retail media funnel, enabling retailers and brands to get marketing alignment between them by unlocking the middle of the funnel.
Captiv8 (www.captiv8.io) was acquired by Publicis Groupe (PAR: PUB) for $150 million on May 15, 2025. The acquisition will help Publicis Groupe to further reinforcing their Category of One, building the world’s most powerful influencer platform by connecting the scale and service of Influential with Captiv8’s unrivalled technology, grounded in Epsilon’s connected identity. Captiv8 is a developer of an influencer marketing platform intended to help brands discover creators, manage campaigns, and drive commerce at scale. The company’s platform offers artificial intelligence-powered creator matching, cross-platform measurement, and commerce integrations to understand audience, optimize content, benchmark against competitors, and grow fan base worldwide, enabling enterprises to optimize influencer partnerships, enhance brand safety, and achieve measurable growth.
