Coming out of the pandemic, large corporations were ready to buy smaller companies to be better positioned for our new economy.

With the surge in activity, deals in the U.S. have added up to about $1.8 trillion this year so far. 

As B2B businesses have bolstered their capabilities, ad buying behavior has changed. Here are the five top B2B M&As from Q3 and how their advertising was impacted.

1. AstraZeneca purchased Alexion Pharmaceuticals 

In July AstraZeneca acquired Alexion Pharmaceuticals for $39 billion. This acquisition will likely help AstraZeneca become more competitive in the mRNA research field.

“We look forward to also applying Alexion’s complement-biology platform across areas of AstraZeneca’s broader early stage pipeline and, significantly, to the extraordinary opportunity to extend existing and future rare disease medicines to patients in many countries where AstraZeneca already has a strong presence,” remarked Marc Dunoyer, incoming Chief Executive Officer, Alexion and Chief Financial Officer, AstraZeneca.

Alexion, a biopharmaceutical company, had very little advertising presence in the months leading up to their acquisition. In Q2 they spent less than $12 thousand on advertising overall. After the acquisition, their Q3 ad spend grew more than 10x to $126 thousand.

2. Salesforce secured its Slack investment

Salesforce gained Slack in July for $27.7 billion.

With the acquisition of Slack, Salesforce will boost its workplace collaboration tool and bolster its offerings to compete with its rival Microsoft, who has been the go-to software vendor for businesses. 

According to Salesforce, the “combined companies will connect people, apps, and data in ways that drive frictionless workflows across Salesforce, all within a single interface centered around people working together from anywhere.”

Slack’s advertising presence heavily expanded their television presence after Salesforce acquired them. Their advertising presence grew from $1.6 million in Q2 to $22.1mm in Q3. 98% of spend in Q3 was invested in television compared to 86% ($1.4mm) in Q2.

3. Taboola scooped up Connexity

Taboola gained Connexity for $800 million in September.

Connexity is one of the largest eCommerce media platforms, averaging over a million transactions a month and operates websites such as Shobzilla.com. As more publishers look to eCommerce to drive revenue, this deal will help publishers optimize sales.

“With Taboola and Connexity, publishers will get instant access to an innovative technology connecting readers with products, which capitalizes on where consumers spend a large part of their day–reading trusted news online,” said Adam Singolda, CEO and founder, Taboola.

Like previous acquisitions above, Connexity’s ad presence skyrocketed after Taboola purchased the company. Their digital presence moved from less than $50 thousand in Q2 to $7.8 million in Q3. All of their spend in Q3 was invested in Facebook.

4. HP acquired Zerto

HP acquired Zerto, an industry leader in cloud data management, for $374 million in July.

“Data is the most critical asset and is essential to operate in this new digital economy,” explained Tom Black, Senior Vice President and General Manager of HPE Storage.  “Zerto’s best-in-class talent and technology expands HPE’s data management and disaster recovery capabilities, giving customers the ability to protect their data and recover in minutes from ransomware attacks.”

In a move that seems to be motivated by their new $2 billion government contract, HP decreased Zerto’s advertising presence after their acquisition. Zerto’s digital advertising fell from $56 thousand in Q2 to less than $10 thousand in Q3.

5. OpenGate Capital gained ScioTeq BV

OpenGate Capital acquired ScioTeq BV for $200 million at the beginning of July.

ScioTeq develops and manufactures visualization solutions including across avionics, aerospace, air traffic control, and security end markets.

This purchase was OpenGate’s eigth acquisition this year. The deal is “representative of the full suite of our cross-border investment capabilities in action,” according to OpenGate Capital’s Partner and Head of Europe, Julien Lagrèze.

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