As CEO’s of leading adtech companies along with institutional and strategic investors gather for LUMA Partners’ annual one-day conference in Manhattan next week, there will surely be talk on and off the stage about the the acquisition of AOL by Verizon. Leading off the conference will be a keynote address by AOL CEO and Chairman Tim Armstrong.
We spoke with LUMA Partners Terence Kawaja about the conference. In his comments in this video, he sees an acceleration of M&A deals, many driven by new and unexpected buyers.
With today’s news, he sent along this comment on the Verizon/AOL news:
“This deal is a fantastic exclamation point to a superb strategy by Tim Armstrong to focus on the high growth, strategic areas of programmatic and video ad tech. Aol pursued an aggressive acquisition strategy to position the company in these growth areas which paid off in organic growth (successive quarters of above-market growth) and culminated in a strategic deal for the company.
What will be interesting to watch is where they go in terms of mobile ad tech where they lag other players. Also interesting will be what Verizon’s direct competitors Comcast and AT&T do in response. Stay tuned. This will get interesting!”
Beet.TV will cover the conference next week.
