Australia's specialist M&A advisor for digital media and marketing technology businesses
Latimer Partners is Australia's specialist M&A advisory firm for digital media, marketing technology, and performance marketing businesses. We advise founders, boards, and private equity owners across the full spectrum of the sector — from martech platforms and data businesses to digital agencies, ad tech providers, influencer marketing groups, and content studios.
Our clients typically generate between $10 million and $200 million in revenue. We bring deep sector knowledge and direct relationships with the most active global and local acquirers. Our track record reflects consistently premium outcomes in a market being reshaped by AI, data regulation, and platform consolidation.
Australia's digital media and marketing sector is undergoing structural transformation. AI is reshaping every layer of the marketing stack. The creator economy has matured into a mainstream M&A asset class. Acquirers are paying premium prices for businesses on the right side of the change.
Generative and agentic AI has compressed the cost of content production, creative iteration, and campaign execution by an order of magnitude. AI is moving into core execution across creative generation, media buying, predictive targeting, and performance measurement. AI-driven marketing mix modelling is enabling marketers to optimise spend with unprecedented precision. The shift from impressions and clicks to revenue attribution and customer lifetime value is accelerating.
The deprecation of third-party cookies and tightening data privacy regulation have elevated the strategic value of first-party data dramatically. Businesses with proprietary audience relationships, identity resolution capabilities, or data clean-room infrastructure are attracting premium interest. Global buyers are seeking defensible data moats in a post-cookie environment.
The creator economy has matured from an experimental marketing channel into a mainstream M&A asset class. Influencer marketing agencies, creator management firms, and social commerce platforms are among the most sought-after targets. In Australia and New Zealand, creator economy spend is approaching $1 billion. Consolidation is underway. Acquirers are also building capability in adjacent emerging channels — connected TV, retail media, and podcast/audio — through M&A rather than organic investment.
AI is not only transforming how marketing is delivered — it is reshaping how consumers discover products and services. AI assistants are becoming a primary channel for recommendations, and brands must now optimise for AI-mediated discovery alongside traditional search. Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is emerging as a critical complement to SEO. Businesses with expertise in LLM-optimised content strategies and AI-driven personalisation are attracting early-mover strategic interest from acquirers.
The global martech landscape is consolidating after years of fragmentation. Marketing technology stacks have become unmanageably complex, and enterprise buyers are seeking integrated platforms over point solutions. This is driving acquisitive activity from global platforms and PE-backed businesses building scale in both software-native martech and technology-augmented agencies.
Australia has produced a disproportionate number of high-quality digital marketing, martech, and creator economy businesses. Global media groups, PE-backed platforms, and international martech acquirers are actively building ANZ presence. They are targeting businesses with differentiated technology, owned IP, or specialist capability in areas such as programmatic, performance, influencer, and connected TV.
“The digital media and marketing sector is bifurcating rapidly. Businesses with proprietary data, platform capability, or genuine AI integration are attracting strong buyer interest and premium valuations. Execution-only models face an increasingly difficult environment as AI commoditises delivery. The window to position well and transact at peak value is open, but it is not permanent.”
— Latimer Partners
Acquirers are bifurcating their approach between technology-led businesses and services-led agencies. Premium valuations are reserved for those with meaningful platform, data, or IP components. Understanding what acquirers pay premiums for is central to how we advise clients on timing, positioning, and process design. The sector rewards differentiation.
For current valuation benchmarks and transaction multiples, see our latest Digital Economy Market Update.
Dentsu, WPP, Publicis Groupe, IPG (now merging with Omnicom), and Havas have historically been active acquirers of ANZ digital marketing businesses with differentiated capability in performance, data, content, creator, or technology. They acquire to build local capability, expand into adjacent disciplines, or leverage proprietary technology across global networks.
PE-backed platforms are assembling diversified groups by acquiring specialist businesses across performance, creative, content, programmatic, influencer, and data. These buyers offer speed and certainty, and often provide a pathway to reinvestment alongside a partial exit.
Global martech and ad tech platforms are acquiring data, identity, and capability assets in Australia to strengthen their ANZ position and extend platform functionality. These acquirers are typically software-native, move quickly, and pay premium multiples for businesses that extend their platform or provide access to proprietary first-party data.
Local buyers can move faster than international counterparts, though cross-border buyers typically deliver greater competitive tension and higher valuations. A well-run process ensures both buyer pools are engaged to maximise outcomes.
We understand the operating metrics, positioning dynamics, and buyer expectations that drive value in digital media and marketing. Whether the business is a martech platform, a performance agency, an influencer marketing group, or a data business, we know what acquirers are looking for. This means sharper pre-process positioning, better-prepared management teams, and stronger outcomes.
We have direct, active relationships with the global media holding groups, PE-backed platform builders, martech acquirers, and domestic strategic buyers most active in this sector. These are relationships built over multiple transactions — not cold introductions made at the start of a process.
Latimer Partners is the exclusive Australian affiliate of Arma Partners — one of the world's leading technology M&A advisory firms, with offices across Europe and North America. In 2024, Arma advised on 32 transactions valued at US$58 billion. In a sector where cross-border transactions regularly produce the best outcomes, this international reach is a material advantage.
Since January 2021, Latimer Partners has completed 37 technology transactions. 34% are cross-border. 50% are for repeat clients. Every engagement is 100% referenceable. We do not take mandates we cannot resource properly, and we are selective about the businesses we work with.
Representative digital media and marketing transactions advised by Latimer Partners' principals.
Whether you're exploring a sale, acquiring, considering strategic options, or seeking growth capital, we'd welcome a confidential conversation.