Dive Brief:
- Advertising technology firm Neustar is being acquired by a private investment group led by Golden Gate Capital for $33.50 per share and a total value of around $2.9 billion, according to a company press release. The deal puts the company back into private hands after being previously traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the NSR ticker.
- The acquisition amount is a 45% premium on Neustar’s closing price on November 11.
- Neustar specializes in data and analytics with more than 12,000 global clients.
Dive Insight:
The move putting Neustar back into private hands illustrates how competitive the ad and martech space has become along with the challenge of competing with the likes of Google and Facebook on the data and ad targeting front. By not having the pressure of needing to show regular growth to stockholders, Neustar can instead focus on staying competitive from a technology perspective in a rapidly evolving space.
The deal also indicates how robust the martech space remains in terms of mergers and acquisitions given the group was willing to fork over a 45% premium on the public stock price.
Martech remains active with startups regularly launching, major tech players snapping up smaller martech firms – the Wall Street Journal pointed out Adobe’s $450 million acquisition of video ad company TubeMogul as a recent example – along with other consolidation activity and partnerships. The Neustar deal is expected to close no later than the end of Q3.
