Season 5, Episode 9: AdTech M&A and the business cycle (with Terence Kawaja)

My guest on this episode of the podcast is Terence Kawaja, the CEO and founder of LUMA Partners, a boutique investment bank focusing on the digital media sector. Terry is a high-profile advisor for transactions in the marketing and advertising spaces, and LUMA Partners publishes the infamous LUMAscapes market maps for those ecosystems. The topics of our discussion include: Terry's general perspective on the digital advertising fundraising and M&A environment at the start of 2025; Why 2024 was so slow regarding digital advertising fundraising and M&A; Whether AdTech M&A follows the general business cycle; Whether the social media platforms are acquisitive; How the changing composition of the FTC impacts the outlook for ad tech M&A; Which companies might be underestimated as buyers of AdTech; Whether the widespread adoption of AI tools within the digital advertising space is an accelerant for M&A; Whether the current digital media environment is closely comparable to any historical point in time.Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast: INCRMNTAL⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on. ⁠⁠⁠Clarisights⁠⁠⁠. Marketing analytics that makes it easy to get answers, iterate fast, and show the impact of your work. Go to⁠⁠⁠ clarisights.com/demo⁠⁠⁠ to try it out for free. ContextSDK. ContextSDK uses over 200 smartphone signals to detect a user’s real-world context, allowing apps to deliver perfectly timed push notifications and in-app offers.Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact ⁠Marketecture⁠.The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on: Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts