Mobile AdTech: The Biggest M&A Deals of 2022

While the mobile advertising industry has been hit hard by the global economic slowdown as well as Apple and Google’s privacy changes paving the way for the cookieless world, many mobile ad tech companies joined their forces in 2022 through mergers and acquisitions.

As Mobile Marketing Reads, we continued to share the latest deals with you throughout the year, and in case you missed, we brought together the biggest M&A deals of 2022 in this article.

Before we dive in, we’ve also just listed the top Mobile Marketing Reads of the year that drew the most attention from our readers, feel free to check that out as well.

Unity – ironSource Merger

Unity announced a merger deal with Tel Aviv-based app business platform ironSource back in July, and soon after, California-based mobile tech company AppLovin also came up with an offer to buy Unity in a $20 billion all-stock deal.

While Unity initially said it wouldn’t make a comment on AppLovin’s proposal during its Q2 earnings call, it eventually rejected it, saying ‘’it is not in the best interests of Unity shareholders and would not reasonably be expected to result in a “Superior Proposal” as defined in Unity’s merger agreement with ironSource.’’

After Unity’s statement, AppLovin announced that it wouldn’t submit another proposal and withdrew its initial one, saying it ‘’concluded that its path as the independent market leader is better for its stockholders and other stakeholders’’.

‘’AppLovin will move forward with the intention of continuing to gain market share and expand its platform,’’ the company added.

Meanwhile, ironSource is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Unity as the merger was completed last month.

ironSource – Tapjoy Acquisition

Before reaching a merger deal with Unity, ironSource finalized its acquisition of mobile advertising and monetization company Tapjoy for $400 million in January, which was first unveiled in late 2021.

“This acquisition, along with others we’ve made recently, will increase the number of access points we have into app-based businesses, as well as provide additional opportunities to expand the number of solutions customers use on our platform,” Tapjoy said at the time.

Integral Ad Science – Context Acquisition

American digital ad tech and verification company Integral Ad Science started this year with the acquisition of Context, a digital content classification company based in Paris, France. The duo didn’t disclose the financial details of the deal.

“Marketers require sophisticated contextual targeting and avoidance solutions that offer precision and flexibility, especially as the industry moves to a cookie-less world,” said Lisa Utzschneider, chief executive officer of IAS. “The acquisition of Context builds on our existing capabilities and accelerates our product roadmap, particularly in video classification for social media and CTV applications,’’ she added.

Zynga – Storemaven Acquisition

Another acquisition news came from Zynga, which was also acquired by US-based video game titan Take-Two for $12.7 billion this year.

In September, Zynga announced that it has closed the acquisition of Israeli mobile growth and ASO company Storemaven for an undisclosed amount.

It said the acquisition would help grow its footprint in Israel, and that Storemaven would ‘’combine its innovative mobile technologies with Zynga’s expansive global portfolio and Chartboost’s advertising platform.’’

AppLovin – MoPub Acquisition

Although it couldn’t strike a deal with Unity, AppLovin in November completed its acquisition of mobile advertising platform MoPub from the social media giant Twitter, which had acquired it for around $350 million in September 2013

For the deal, which was first announced in October last year, AppLovin paid Twitter $1.05 billion in cash.

Notable M&A Deals of 2022

Here are the other notable mergers and acquisitions that took place in 2022.

• HUMAN acquires anti-malvertising company clean.io
• Branch acquires first-party data platform AdLibertas
• Reddit acquires audience contextualization platform Spiketrap
• Aonic acquires Exmox for nearly $100 million
• Mobile ad exchange Kargo acquires Ziggeo to expand its video offerings
• Verve Group acquires mobile DSP Dataseat to boost user acquisition
• Mobile advertising firm Ogury acquires Motionly
• Kargo acquires attention-based mobile advertising company Parsec
• Ad tech company TripleLift acquires 1plusX for $150 million
• Spotify acquires Podsights and Chartable to advance podcast measurement 
• Mayfair Equity Partners acquires majority stake in LoopMe for $120 million
• Adtech company Smartly.io acquires Ad-Lib.io
• Optimove acquires cloud-based personalization platform Graphyte
• Moburst acquires digital development firm Layer
• Reddit acquires machine learning platform Spell
• CleverTap acquires multi-channel customer engagement platform Leanplum
• Airship Acquires App Store Optimization Company Gummicube
• VideoAmp acquires Elsy to automate execution of cross-platform campaigns
• Twitter acquires mobile app engagement platform OpenBack
• Optimove acquires mobile app messaging platform Kumulos
• Airnow acquires mobile growth platform Lab Cave

As we’re just days away from 2023, MMR wishes you a happy new year with your family and friends. Keep following us to keep up with the most-recent developments in the mobile marketing ecosystem.