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Editor ’ s Letter
Risky business
This issue , Scott Longley analyses the fallout from XL following Catena in jettisoning all non-US assets to focus on this competitive and scale-driven market , which neither removes the M & A target from their backs nor secures their future as independent entities .
Whether XL and Catena fall victim to the scale they once wielded remains to be seen , but regardless , this wave of activity is now the most defining for the sector since Catena began the era of the listed consolidator in 2015 . Only a few years ago we were talking about Affiliation 2.0 and now 3.0 , driven by scale , automation and AI , is in full effect .
With BC all-in on adtech as part of its sports media pivot , GAMB and GiG now form a distinct second tier for which only needle-moving M & A will do for investors . Such assets are naturally scarcer and come with higher premiums than those offloaded by Catena and XL , the subsequent performances of which makes these sales look more distressed than initially assumed .
This tendency to scale is creating headwinds in core markets for the rest of the listed tail , and while Raketech is confident of meeting the near- $ 50m earnout commitment for an asset for which they paid just € 2m upfront , the situation is understood to be more terminal for others .
“ Only a few years ago we were talking about Affiliation 2.0 and now 3.0 , driven by scale , automation and AI , is in full effect ”
Stephen Carter Head of affiliate content