In keeping with our mission to provide comprehensive advertising analysis, MediaRadar puts together a report of the most important mergers and acquisitions news each week. Stay in the loop, whether you sell advertising space or focus on business development.
This week, Corsair acquired Gamer Sensei, Quest Software gained Quadrotech, and Spotify announced plans to buy Megaphone.
Corsair gains esports coaching platform Gamer Sensei
Corsair Gaming, Inc., a computer hardware and peripherals company, announced that it has acquired esports coaching platform Gamer Sensei. The announcement came simultaneously with Corsair’s first earnings report since the company went public in late September.
Gamer Sensei, which was founded in 2016, matches players with gaming teachers for any of the top 20 popular esports titles including Call of Duty, League of Legends, Dota 2, and Fortnite. Gamer Sensei will fit in as a subsidiary of Corsair, alongside gaming controller producer SCUF Gaming, custom gaming PC builder ORIGIN PC, and live-streaming equipment manufacturer Elgato.
Corsair’s earnings report revealed the company ended the third quarter of 2020 with a net profit of $36.36 million, surging 2394% year-over-year. The growth is reflected in the esports market, which reached $1.48 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow at a rate of 24.4% in the next 7 years.
Quest Software acquires Quadrotech
Quest Software, a global systems management and security software provider, has made another move to bolster its Microsoft 365 management and migration solutions by acquiring Switzerland-based Quadrotech.
Quadrotech brings new Office 365 multi-tenant management capabilities for customers, and its Nova service is expected to aid Quest’s managed service provider partners.
Last month Quest acquired Binary Tree for its Office 365 cloud-to-cloud migration solutions. Quest Software had been previously acquired by Dell in 2012, but was subsequently sold to private equity firm Francisco Partners in 2016.
Spotify plans to buy Megaphone—which will make advertisers lives easier
Spotify is continuing to push its podcasting game by buying podcast hosting and ad company Megaphone for $235 million.
Originally known as Panoply when it launched in 2015 as a podcast production company, it rebranded as Megaphone in 2019 and pivoted away from editorial production to focus on hosting, ad tools, and distribution.
Spotify already hosted its podcasts using Megaphone, but the acquisition means more shows will have access to Spotify’s proprietary ad insertion technology, Streaming Ad Insertion (SAI).
Once the deal is finalized, all podcasts currently hosted on Megaphone will gain access to SAI, and since no other hosting services use SAI, advertisers will have to pay Megaphone to distribute their ads and benefit from Spotify’s real-time targeted ad service.
In Other News
Other noteworthy deals are brewing:
- Video game publisher Take-Two Interactive has reached a deal to acquire British racing game developer and publisher Codemasters for approximately $994 million.
- VF Corporation, an equity firm that owns brands like The North Face, Vans, Timberland, and Dickeies, is now acquiring streetwear brand Supreme for $2.1 billion.
- Salty snacks maker Utz Brands, Inc. announced that it is acquiring Truco Enterprises, the manufacturer of tortilla chips, salsa, and queso under the ON THE BORDER brand for $480 million.
- Right off the heels of their acquisition of meal delivery company Freshly, Nestlé S.A. is acquiring yet another direct-to-consumer food brand: healthy meal kit brand Mindful Chef.
- Traton SE, the heavy-truck subsidiary of Volkswagen AG, has agreed to purchase the remaining stake of Navistar, of which it already owns 16.8%, in a massive deal that values the shares of the company at $44.50 each, for a grand total of $3.7 billion.
- Adobe Inc. announced that it will acquire marketing workflow management startup Workfront Inc. for $1.5 billion.
- DoorDash, Roblox, Wish, and Airbnb have all filed confidential paperwork with the SEC this year, and all of them are expected to make their filings public by early next week.
