2011 was a big year for marketing technology

The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. (JEGI), a leading investment bank in the marketing space, issued a report yesterday of 2011 M&A activity across media, information, marketing services and technology sectors.

JEGI reports that those sectors "saw nearly 900 transactions in 2011 totaling $47 billion, a 9% rise over 2010."

From a marketing technology perspective, the marketing and interactive services sector is the most interesting, which had "291 transactions announced at a total value of $15.1 billion in 2011, up 17% and 33%, respectively, over 2010."

Some of the notable Q4 transactions in marketing technology included:

• Oracle's acquisition of RightNow Technologies for $1.5 billion
• Oracle's acquisition of Endeca Technologies for $1.1 billion
• Neustar's acquisition of TARGUSInfo for $650 million
• Adobe's acquisition of Efficient Frontier for $400 million
• Yahoo's acquisition of interCLICK for $251 million
• SDL's acquisition of Alterian for $104 million

I'd also add that 2011 was a particularly big year for investment — or planned public investment — in marketing automation. In August, Eloqua filed to go public. In November, ExactTarget filed to go public, and Marketo raised an additional $50 million (a grand total of $107 million raised so far). Back in March, HubSpot raised an additional $32 million (a grand total of $65 million raised).

What does 2012 have in store?

According to JEGI, "The media and technology markets continue to evolve at a torrid pace, and companies are increasingly seeking assets to drive growth and provide new revenue streams. JEGI expects that a diverse and active pool of buyers, including both strategic companies and private equity firms, both of which have access to capital and will benefit from a steadily improving debt financing market, will drive vigorous M&A activity in the year ahead."

Add in the Eloqua and ExactTarget public offerings early in 2012, and I think it's safe to say that 2012 is going to be an exciting year for the marketing technology ecosystem.

Looks like I'm going to have to update my Marketing Technology Landscape Infographic soon.

Comments

[Aldo Baker]

Hi,

My name is Aldo Baker and I’m getting in touch with you regarding your website. I wanted to share the new infographic "Best Infographics of 2011", and thought this might interest your readers.

You can review the graphic at http://www.sodahead.com/fun/the-life-and-times-of-steve-jobs-is-the-best-infographic-of-2011/question-2374359/

If you like the graphic, I’d appreciate if you could add it to your blog or share it through your social media accounts.

I’m available Monday to Friday 8am-7pm CST, and can be contacted by my direct email me@aldobaker.com

PS. I am more than happy to help you share any future blog post you are trying to get more visibility to.

Thanks,
Aldo Baker
Marketing Director

[MegTemple]

Great post thanks - Last week I attended a Gartner webinar titled "By 2017 the CMO will Spend More on IT than the CIO” - interesting info to support the fact that marketing budgets are controlling more and more of the spend for marketing technology http://bit.ly/ydFv1m. That matches what we are seeing at Percussion - curious to know if you are seeing the same thing.

[MegTemple]

I just saw that you posted about the Gartner findings a few posts before this one!

[Vincent Jacobs]

Hello Scott!
I am a writer and SEO specialist and I find your blog really interesting because it speaks about marketing technology. Now you have to understand that my expertise is mainly in writing and blogging so pardon me if I say that words like "marketing automation" seem like a foreign concept. It sounds like a great deal of profits are in store for marketing big wigs and financial sector authorities. But what about small time blog owners and writers like me? What should we look forward to this 2012?

[Leftrict]

Scott, I referenced your technology landscape in a CMO conference I attended last week and had a great amount of interest in the intersection of marketing and technology and the concept of the marketing technology roadmap. And in particular the technology landscape graphic you developed was discussion starter. I'm a follower now so let me know if you see other great samples of marketing technology frameworks that are working to bring the two together.