E59: A Mystery Strategic Buyer Is Coming for Independents, Brkthru's x Gigawatt & Instacart Deal

Something big is coming!...Water cooler conversations at the Possible conference are pointing to a major deal announcement in the next two weeks — a strategic buyer nobody has seen coming, going after independent agencies with significant media underspend. Christian and Ayelet are on the story. Stay close.But first: two deals, two market insights from the Ad Age House session at Possible, and one very clean example of how a bootstrapped independent agency is running corp dev with zero institutional capital behind it.Two deals. One major tease. Under 16 minutes.⏱️ TIMESTAMPS0:00 — Post-Possible recovery, thank yous, and let's get into it0:37 — Market insight #1: Rollups in fragmented categories are the PE thesis right now2:00 — Why PE backs away when two players already control 40% of a category2:30 — Market insight #2: AI is breaking reps and warranties in M&A deals4:00 — The 12-18 month outlook: legacy media consolidation, take privates, dry powder still parked5:20 — Deal #1: Brkthru acquires Gigawatt — bootstrapped agency runs corp dev in-house7:00 — Why Breakthrough's January acquisition announcement was genius top-of-funnel8:00 — The vertical thesis: hospitality and tourism, low-risk test case deal9:00 — You don't need institutional capital to run an M&A strategy9:48 — Deal #2: Instacart acquires InstaLeap — grocery tech, international expansion11:00 — What Instacart actually bought (it's not just international coverage)12:00 — Storefront Pro vs. InstaLeap: two different operating models for two different markets13:00 — The 100 retailer relationships across 30 countries are the real asset13:30 — Instacart's full M&A cadence: 2021 through 202614:17 — Props to the corp dev team, PMI advisor, and GP Bullhound sell-side15:47 — 🚨 The tease: a mystery strategic buyer is coming for independent agencies🔔 Live every Friday — subscribe so you don't miss the big announcement💬 Drop your guesses on the mystery buyer in the commentsConnect with Christian and AyeletAyelet’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-shipley-b16330149/Christian's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hassold/Web: https://www.inorganicpodcast.co Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.