Analysis from our own screening data.

Deal analysis, sector notes and transaction commentary from our own screening data.

Latest.

  1. 01.05.20263 min readTwo deals: when the AI model providers become the consultants. What the new Anthropic and OpenAI ventures mean for M&A.OpenAI and Anthropic are moving into the consulting market through strategic joint ventures with large private equity firms.Research
  2. 09.10.20252 min readFreenet acquires Mobilezone Germany: a consolidation move with strategic logicfreenet AG signed an agreement to acquire 100% of Mobilezone Deutschland GmbH for approximately €230 million. The implied multiple sits well above the European benchmark, and the case for it rests entirely on synergies.Deal analysis
  3. 13.08.202512 min readM&A trends in performance marketingThe social performance approach: an analysis of the ManyMinds Group acquisition and the wave of consolidation running through performance marketing.Research
  4. 29.04.20256 min readECM sells its majority stake in Intermate Group to SAMY AllianceThe next transaction for our client Advertace after its integration into Intermate. ECM's German Equity Partners V fund sells the Berlin social-first agency to the Bridgepoint-backed SAMY Alliance.Transaction
  5. 18.11.20244 min readCreator economy, marketing technology and strategic deals in GermanyA market projected to grow from $127.65 billion in 2023 to $528.39 billion by 2030, and two German deals that read as a direct consequence: MSQ buying UDG, and We Are Era buying Social Match.Research
  6. 10.10.20241 min readAgency Return: a knowledge base for value creation and M&A in the agency spaceYears of advising agency transactions in Europe, opened up as a knowledge base. Agency-Return.com collects what we have learned about value creation and M&A in the agency market.Firm news
  7. 11.07.20241 min readArtificial intelligence M&A is booming: Q2 2024 in numbersAI startups took 30% of all venture capital funding in the quarter, $19 billion in total and 30% more than the quarter before. The M&A side is catching up.Research
  8. 06.06.20245 min readIntermate strengthens its portfolio by acquiring AdvertaceIntermate, one of Europe's leading social media and influencer agencies, acquires the German social performance agency Advertace. The move follows ECM Equity Capital Management's entry in 2022.Transaction
  9. 19.04.20241 min readAI venture capital and private equity activity is high, and M&A is gaining tractionAI has changed what the IT hardware and software market is worth. Data centres are the obvious investment case; replacing conventional software and process work is the larger one.Research
  10. 02.05.20233 min readWPP acquires amp, Obviously and Goat AgencyThree acquisitions in short order: a Munich sonic branding house, a New York influencer platform and a London influencer agency. Read together they describe what a holding company now wants to own.Transaction
  11. 31.03.20224 min readAudiencly, Europe's leading gaming influencer agency, acquired by Flexion MobileFlexion Mobile Plc, listed on Nasdaq First North, acquires Audiencly, the industry leader in influencer marketing for games. A cross-border process run from Hamburg.Transaction
  12. 12.07.20215 min readDemoup and Cliplister merge into Europe's leading product experience platformCliplister, a European digital asset management business, joins forces with Demoup, a product experience and video platform. Two founder-led companies, one platform.Transaction
  13. 18.01.20215 min readPhrase acquired by Memsource, backed by The Carlyle GroupMemsource, the AI-powered translation management system, together with its majority shareholder The Carlyle Group, acquires the software localization platform Phrase.Transaction
  14. 11.08.20201 min readDSP Platform161 acquired by Media and Games InvestMedia and Games Invest acquires the programmatic advertising specialist Platform161, along with the remaining minority stake in ReachHero.Transaction
  15. 06.04.20201 min readHouse view on the Covid-19 crisisOur reading of the market in April 2020: what stops, what carries on, and which technology positions come out of the crisis stronger than they went in.House view
  16. 05.02.20201 min readLooking back on a successful 2019Eighteen months of mandates in machine learning and artificial intelligence, marketing technology and agencies, online platforms, telecom services, e-commerce, SaaS and publishing.Firm news
  17. 03.12.20193 min readInterview for the Savvy Awards with Jens NoldenAfter the House of Beautiful Business in Lisbon: where innovation is still missing, what technology owes people rather than markets, and which questions a founder should be asked earlier.House view
  18. 18.06.20192 min readThe TechReturn roadshow, May and June 2019OMR in Hamburg, and the digital technology venues we took the roadshow to over two months. Fifty thousand visitors, four hundred exhibitors, three hundred speakers, and a fair number of conversations.Event
  19. 18.12.20182 min readWebedia Germany acquires the influencer marketing agency Flow:FwdSome of Germany's best-known influencers, 120 million contacts a month, active across every relevant format. Webedia Germany adds the Hamburg agency Flow:Fwd to its media business.Transaction
  20. 20.07.20181 min readDeal time in Hamburg: two grown-ups, around €600 million, one weekAbout You valued at around €1 billion by Heartland, the investment arm of the Danish Bestseller Group, and a second Hamburg transaction in the same week.Transaction
  21. 30.03.20181 min readPriceHubble acquires Immolyze: our second AI and machine learning transaction of 2018Technology Return acted as exclusive transaction advisor to the investors and to Immolyze. The second mandate of the year in artificial intelligence and machine learning.Transaction
  22. 15.11.20171 min readWeb Summit 2017, and why we will be backLisbon in November: business, technology, fashion, music and politics in one place. What we took away from Web Summit and the first Savvy Awards.Event
  23. 04.09.20173 min readVoice recognition, bots and artificial intelligence meet banking and insuranceFukoku Mutual Life replaced 34 employees with IBM Watson in January. Voice recognition is no longer a demonstration in insurance, and banking is next.Research
  24. 20.06.20171 min readTech bubble or not: the Slack acquisition analysis by Frédéric FillouxAmazon to pay $6,000 per Slack account. Frédéric Filloux does the arithmetic on the Monday Note, and it is worth reading before the next valuation conversation.Research
  25. 08.05.20171 min readJust another trend report for 2017? Fjord on the return from digital investmentsAccenture's Fjord Trends 2017 is the rare trend report that gets to the implications: where the return on a digital investment actually comes from.Research
  26. 03.03.20171 min readFebruary 2017, and what is hatching this yearA strong fourth quarter and a strong January, with mandates across retail, hospitality and food, and every one of them in an industry being digitally disrupted.Research
  27. 28.07.20161 min readTechnology Return roadshow, third quarter 2016Where to meet us, and what we are bringing: two newly established VC technology funds and investment opportunities across SaaS, food, fintech, gaming, legaltech and e-commerce.Event
  28. 11.05.20161 min readThe Webfuture Award proves the potential of Hamburg's start-up ecosystemNine finalists chosen by a jury of start-up experts and investment professionals, all of them in the running for best digital start-up in the city.Event
  29. 01.02.20162 min readImpressive deal flow from the first Technology Return event in HamburgAn exclusive selection of entrepreneurs, every one of them eligible or prepared for a transaction, put in a room with the finance industry. The track record from that first conference.Event
  30. 25.02.20151 min readThe first Technology Return event in the pressThe first session drew a good deal of positive coverage. A selection of what was written about it.Firm news
  31. 02.02.20151 min readThe Technology Return agendaThe series was initiated and moderated by Jens Nolden in January. These were the speeches guests heard at the first event.Research
  32. 07.01.20151 min readThe first Technology Return digital M&A eventDigital transformation has already taken industries apart. Companies with long histories in traditional sectors are being made to change their business models, and that is where the growth and the transactions are.Event
  33. 14.11.20141 min readFinTech is growing rapidly in EuropeInvestment in the global fintech sector has grown more than four times faster than venture capital as a whole, and Europe is taking a rising share of it.Research
  34. 21.07.20141 min readA systematic approach to fintech and its key playersFinancial technology has a particular urgency after the financial crisis. The world changed in 2008; financial services largely did not. This is how we map the field.Research