S4 Capital chalks up (yet another) deal as Media.Monks unveils 4 Mile ‘merger’

By Ronan Shields

Similar to how 2021 ended, 2022 has begun with today’s announcement that Media.Monks is to merge with 4 Mile Analytics, the latest deal in the current deluge of M&A announcements in the digital media landscape.

In a statement, Martin Sorrell, executive chairman of S⁴ Capital, noted how 4 Mile’s experience across a number of the internet’s major platforms, particularly Google’s analytics service Looker and its Google Cloud, would prove crucial to helping clients to improve their digital competencies.

“We don’t do earnout, we’re looking for people that want to build their business. The first question of any discussion is, ‘If you want to sell your business, then go and talk to X, Y, and Z.’“

Martin, Sorrell, executive chairman, S⁴ Capital

Nick Folger, founder, and CEO 4 Mile, who previously served as the director of engineering at Looker, said that his outfit helps clients “make insights actionable.” This is performed by helping them to access and aggregate their first-party data in order to improve their media operation, including their marcomms operations.

He explained to Digiday how 4 Mile recently helped a Fortune 500 client retrieve its ad placement data across a number of platforms, such as Facebook, to automate campaign execution.

“We have built them an application for [assessing] their ROI,” Folger added. “It automates the ingestion of ad media, and figures out, in an automated way, what to place and when based on a variety of different data sources.”

Meanwhile, Tyler Pietz, global evp, data, Media.Monks, explained to Digiday how the integration of 4 Mile will enhance his company’s offering which consists, nominally, of helping marketing teams to navigate major platforms such as Amazon, Google, Salesforce, etc.

“One of the biggest challenges that clients have is that they have insights that are blocked in silos and aren’t making their way through the bloodstream of the business,” he said, adding that 4 Mile’s talent pool of 45 data specialists will help alleviate this.

“There isn’t enough talent out there that knows how to operate within these major infrastructure platforms … work with the data, model it and surface it in a way that is actionable for someone inside the business.”

Financial terms of the deal — Media.Monks’ parent company S⁴ Capital has cut more than 20 such deals since forming in 2018 — were not publicly disclosed. Although, 4 Mile, whose headcount is close to 50 and generated $6.5 million in revenue last year, is set to come under the Media.Monks banner.

Sorrell on the current state of M&A

In its 2021 full-year market report, LUMA Partners described 2021 as “an emphatic rebound year” for the overall digital marketing sector with deal-making activity up 82% from 2020 — the total number of deals numbered 399.

Additionally, the investment bank forecast “elevated M&A activity in 2022” as both strategic and financial buyers join the buying frenzy.

Speaking with Digiday, Sorrell, arguably the …read more

Source:: Digiday