With the buzz about Web 2.0 technologies and interactive marketing as the next new wave, marketers are asking, “What do the numbers say?” In a recent issue of its
Marketing Sector Deal Notes,
PetskyPrunier LLC notes that merger and acquisition activity in the marketing technology industry increased exponentially in the first half of 2007.
According to the report, one reason for this year’s high level of consolidation is “activity within the interactive segment reached a pinnacle, trimming the significant gap between interactive marketing spend and online media consumption.”
Deal Notes reported about 10 percent of the total marketing spend in the first half of 2007 was directed toward interactive channels, while about one-third of the total media consumption occurred online.
During the first half of 2007, the marketing technology sector’s deal volume grew by 30 percent compared to the first half of 2006. PetskyPrunier reports the most active segments were Web content management and Web commerce management, representing 33 percent and 17 percent of sector deal volume respectively.
According to the report, deal volume in the technology marketing sector grew 400 percent in the Web content management segment. In addition, the measurement, testing and analysis segment experienced substantial activity with a 200 percent increase in deal volume. For example, PetskyPrunier reports that Experian’s $240 million acquisition of Hitwise accounted for close to 80 percent of the total segment deal value, with Microsoft’s $800 million acquisition of TellMe Networks as the largest teleservices transaction for the first quarter of 2007.
—Kate Debevois
Social Media ROI
Email Marketing that Works (2nd Edition)