• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, October 9, 2024

The data and targeting field was rocked on Wednesday with the news that Zeta Global is acquiring LiveIntent for a whopping $250 million. 

The purchase will allow Zeta Global to integrate LiveIntent’s identity graph, comprised of over 235 million unique hashed email addresses per month into the Zeta Data Cloud. 

It will also boost Zeta’s new mobile and retail media products that allow marketers to unify identity across devices and channels and predict customer behavior, the firm says. 

The total price includes $77.5 million in cash on hand and $172.5 million in common stock at closing, Zeta says.

The deal is expected to close in the last quarter of 2024.  

Another byproduct of the merger will be Zeta’s expansion into the publisher monetization business. Having gained access to LiveIntent’s 2,000+ premium publishers, Zeta is launching a new product called the Publisher Cloud. 

This provides a closed-loop ecosystem that rivals the big walled gardens, the company claims.

Why is Zeta Global pursuing this consolidation now? “We have gotten to know the LiveIntent team through our work with them over the past five years and have seen firsthand the benefits of their core assets and experienced the impact of their platform,” says David A. Steinberg, co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Zeta Global.  

Steinberg adds that LiveIntent meets “all four of our cited M&A principles" as "a complementary platform we can seamlessly integrate into the Zeta Marketing Platform within six months."

He adds: "We already have interest from Zeta customers in our largest verticals for cross selling opportunities, and we believe these synergies can accelerate LiveIntent’s growth while continuing Zeta’s strong organic growth rates.”