Adtech and martech mergers and acquisitions (M&A) experienced their busiest quarter on record in Q1 2017, while H1 2017 is the second-highest half-year figure.

In the first three months of the year, according to Results International, there were a total of 115 deals – though this fell to 102 in Q2. The second quarter did, however, see an increased in the acquisitions by private equity and private equity-backed portfolio companies. Acquisitions from these companies represented over 20 per cent of martech and 15 per cent of adtech deals.

“Adtech, martech and the broader tech universe are recovering strongly from a relatively tough few quarters,” said Julie Langley, partner at Results International. “Market trends are very positive, the number of martech deals is growing and if combined adtech and martech M&A rates continue into the second half of 2017, this could be a record-breaking year. 

“Adtech is showing signs of a revival. We’re seeing renewed appetite on the public markets, which demonstrates how investors remain supportive of the scaled and established adtech businesses. While the market remains tough for undifferentiated propositions, we anticipate that interest in companies underpinned by AI and machine learning will bring a fresh wave of funding to both the adtech and martech segments.”

Major deals that occurred in H1 2017 included Oracle’s $850m acquisition of digital measurement cloud company Moat, Snap Inc’s $200m purchase of location-based marketing platform Placed, Singtel-owned Amobee’s $310m Turn buy and Altice’s $300m takeover of online video ad marketplace Teads.