Top Mobile Marketing Reads of 2025

2025 was a year of significant mergers, acquisitions, and capital inflows, alongside transformative strategic moves in mobile, ad tech, AI, and consumer engagement. As the mobile ecosystem matured, leading players expanded through deals while innovators raised fresh funding to accelerate growth and product development.

This roundup highlights the most impactful stories of 2025—the developments that captured our readers’ attention, drove industry-wide discussion, and influenced how mobile marketing will evolve in the years ahead. From strategic deals to platform shifts, these were the moments that shaped the year.

Publicis Group’s 2025 Deal Wave

In 2025, Publicis Groupe executed a strategic series of acquisitions and expansion moves aimed at strengthening its data and identity capabilities, influencer marketing leadership, AI and technology services, and cultural/creative offerings. The company opened the year with the acquisition of Atomic 212º, an independent media agency in Australia, and Dysrupt. In February, Publicis announced the acquisition of BR Media Group, which is recognized as the largest influencer marketing and digital content company in Latin America with a creator network of over 500,000.

One of the most impactful transactions of the year was Publicis’ acquisition of Lotame, a leading independent data and identity platform. In March, the company acquired Moov AI, an AI and data strategy firm serving more than 100 clients in Canada. Adopt and Captiv8 also joined Publicis within the year.

Mega Deals and Capital at Scale

In 2025, deal activity in mobile marketing, ad tech, gaming, and adjacent digital sectors featured several headline-making transactions — from multibillion-dollar buyouts to strategic portfolio acquisitions that will reshape competitive dynamics going into 2026.

• Databricks raises $4 billion at a $134 billion valuation, underscoring continued investor confidence in AI and data infrastructure that supports marketing analytics and optimization.
• Coursera to acquire Udemy in a $2.5 billion all-stock deal, reflecting consolidation trends in digital education platforms that intersect with skills development for mobile and digital marketing professionals.
• Novacap to acquire Integral Ad Science in $1.9 B all-cash deal, taking IAS private and underscoring ongoing investor appetite for companies that help advertisers deliver verified, transparent campaign performance data.
• Electronic Arts set for record $55 B buyout to go private, the largest of its kind in history. A consortium including Silver Lake Partners, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), and Affinity Partners will acquire all outstanding EA shares, highlighting robust investor confidence in long-term gaming franchises despite market headwinds.
• Tripledot Studios confirmed the acquisition of AppLovin’s entire mobile games studio portfolio in a transaction valued at approximately $800 million, combining cash and an equity stake. This significantly expands Tripledot’s footprint in mobile gaming, adding major titles and studios while allowing AppLovin to streamline toward core ad tech offerings.
• Adobe announced an agreement to acquire Semrush — a widely used digital marketing and SEO platform — in an all-cash deal worth about $1.9 billion. This strategic acquisition bolsters Adobe’s marketing technology portfolio amid rapid shifts toward AI-driven search and optimization tools.
• In one of the most consequential entertainment industry negotiations of the year, Netflix entered exclusive talks to acquire Warner Bros. from Warner Bros. Discovery in a proposed transaction valued at approximately $72 billion. If completed, the deal would fold Warner Bros.’ storied studio assets and HBO Max into Netflix’s global platform, dramatically expanding its content library and influence across mobile, streaming, and digital storytelling ecosystems.

Top Deals and IPOs of 2025

Notable Funding Rounds of 2025

• Multi-channel programmatic advertising platform StackAdapt raises $235 million
• MoEngage raises $100M to expand AI-driven customer engagement platform globally
• Sensor Tower secures strategic investment from Shinhan Securities to expand generative AI and web intelligence capabilities
• Liftoff closes minority investment deal with General Atlantic
• RevenueCat secures $50M to expand subscription infrastructure as AI and web payments reshape app economy
• Appcharge raises $58M Series B to expand direct-to-consumer platform for mobile games
• Vibe.co secures $50M Series B to accelerate AI-powered CTV advertising expansion
• Agentio secures $40M to expand AI-driven infrastructure for creator-led advertising
• Fluency secures $40M Series A to expand AI-driven ad automation platform
• Hightouch secures $80M Series C to expand AI-driven marketing capabilities
• Aonic invests initial $10M in Mega Fortuna as part of $70M acquisition strategy

Notable Acquisitions of 2025

• The Trade Desk acquires Sincera
• Rokt acquires customer data platform mParticle for $300 million
• MTG completes $620M acquisition of Plarium, eyes future growth
• Rockstar Games expands global presence with Video Games Deluxe acquisition
• Niantic’s Transformation: Game Division Sold to Scopely as Geospatial AI Becomes the Focus
• Sensor Tower expands gaming analytics with acquisition of Video Game Insights
• WPP boosts AI capabilities with strategic acquisition of InfoSum
• DoorDash to acquire Deliveroo in $3.86B deal to expand European presence
• Databricks acquires Neon for $1B to power AI agents with serverless Postgres
• Grammarly acquires Superhuman to power next phase of AI productivity and agentic email
• Empower and Ocean Media merge to form $1.5B independent agency group
• Aonic acquires Prime Insights in $250M deal to expand global rewards and data platform
• Bending Spoons to acquire Vimeo in $1.38B all-cash deal
• Magnite acquires streamr.ai to expand SMB access to CTV advertising
• Bending Spoons to acquire AOL from Yahoo in latest expansion move
• Pinterest enters CTV advertising with tvScientific acquisition