As Ciesco’s M&A reviews have been showing, the Mobile sector has solidified its position as one of the most attractive sectors for M&A activity. The advancement of smartphone hardware, software and cellular networks has given more opportunity for rich media, video, and native ad placements within mobile browsers, apps and messaging platforms. This, paired with the access to accurate, real-time audience data, means mobile advertising is attracting an increasing share of marketers budgets.

Deal activity in 2016 has remained buoyant, with 90 targets being acquired, showing the sector continues to receive significant interest from companies as they seek to gain a technological advantage over competitors. In particular, app design and development shops are benefitting from this trend as apps increasingly dominate mobile usage. Apple’s App Store generated a record $28.5bn in 2016, $20bn of which goes to developers. In China, App Store sales grew 90% from that of 2015.

“This year, we’ll see more M&A activity as mobile operators and pure-play telecoms businesses look to partner with digital service providers, cloud communications companies and even finch companies to embed mobile and rich communications services into their core proposition”.

Daniel Kurgan | CEO at BICS