Adtech M&A is in the air.
Two more deals landed Friday. Taboola announced plans to acquire Dianomi, a native ad network specializing in finance and business, while Infillion agreed to acquire Foursquare, adding the formerly beloved mobile app-turned-location intelligence company to a portfolio that already includes MediaMath, Catalina, TrueX and other acquired adtech businesses.
The deals are very different, but both follow a familiar 2026 theme: adtech companies are buying specialized technology, data and supply rather than building everything themselves.
Why This Matters:
For Taboola, Dianomi gives its Realize performance advertising platform a deeper foothold in financial services. Taboola says the acquisition will create a “highly specialized, premium ad network focused on finance,” bringing Dianomi’s relationships with publishers including Reuters, CNN Business and The Wall Street Journal, as well as financial advertisers, into its broader platform.
Basically: Taboola gets more premium finance inventory and advertiser relationships in a category where Dianomi has spent years building a specialized business.
Infillion’s rationale is about data. The company says combining Foursquare’s location intelligence with Catalina’s purchase data will help advertisers connect media exposure with store visits and, ultimately, purchases (good ol’ closing the loop). Foursquare gives Infillion a useful new piece of the real-world measurement puzzle.
Both are pretty understandable deals. But the bigger story is that they’re happening — and being announced on the same day. This is a trend, folks.
Last month, LUMA Partners CEO Terry Kawaja pointed to roughly $28 billion in recently announced adtech M&A, including Publicis-LiveRamp, Walmart-Vibe, Fox-Roku and Nielsen-DoubleVerify. He argued that pent-up demand, attractive valuations and pressure to position businesses for AI were bringing buyers back to the table.
Add Taboola-Dianomi and Infillion-Foursquare to the list.
Experts React:
There was plenty of industry reaction to both announcements on Friday. Here are some of the more interesting takes we saw on X:
Our Take:
There’s another wrinkle to all this consolidation: regulators are paying more attention to the structure of ad markets/adtech. Google’s adtech remedies fight and the FTC’s adtech case against Amazon provide a very different backdrop for dealmaking than existed during earlier waves of consolidation.
That doesn’t mean the buying stops. Far from it. But as adtech M&A continues, the strategic fit — and potential regulatory implications — of bigger combinations will probably matter more.
So, since everyone is apparently shopping, here are three deals we’ll be watching for: The Trade Desk buying something that expands its capabilities; OpenAI acquiring adtech infrastructure around areas like creative or conversion, and a major CTV company acquiring an SSP.
Wild predictions? Sure. But at the current pace of adtech M&A, especially as deals are ramping up, none would feel particularly surprising.
