Inorganic Podcast

Salsify is being acquired by European private equity firm Cinven in an all-cash deal reportedly worth around $1 billion, marking one of the biggest commerce software exits of the year. Christian and Ayelet break down why the deal matters far beyond the headline, from the return of private equity to commerce enablement to what this means for the next wave of M&A. They explore the strategic value of Salsify, why SAP missed a major opportunity, how community became one of the company's greatest assets, and why this acquisition could ignite consolidation across the commerce technology landscape. Plus, quick takes on Tracksuit's AI acquisition and Neon's $13M funding round to challenge the app store model.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS 

0:24 — Big week for In Organic, Marketecture partnership & birthday wishes

1:12 — In Organic officially joins the Marketecture Media Network

2:01 — Introducing Sifted Pro as the show's first sponsor

2:39 — Headline: Salsify acquired by Cinven in a ~$1B deal

3:19 — What Salsify does and why it matters in commerce

4:18 — Deal value, valuation haircut & employee equity implications

5:28 — Christian's personal connection to Salsify's founding story

7:06 — The culture that built Salsify's success

8:32 — Why the Digital Shelf Institute community is a strategic asset

9:53 — Operator's read: Why Cinven is a major new commerce investor

12:36 — Was the acquisition price actually a success?

14:28 — Why SAP should have bought Salsify

18:30 — Post-merger integration risks and employee retention

21:36 — Deal architect's view: Partnership vs. takeover

22:21 — The value and risk of community in acquisitions

24:41 — What this deal means for future commerce M&A

25:25 — Deal hit: Tracksuit acquires Hall for AI brand visibility

26:14 — Deal hit: Neon raises $13M to challenge app store fees

26:46 — Preview of next week's M&A sentiment report

🎙️ Now part of the Marketecture Media Network

🤝 Sponsored by Sifted Pro (sifted.eu)

🔔 Subscribe for weekly M&A coverage on In/Organic

Connect with Christian and Ayelet

Ayelet's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-shipley-b16330149/

Christian's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hassold/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week Christian called Vista's rumored bid for Criteo "cheap" and left it at a throwaway line: three to four times.. what? A few people texted him afterward and said he could have done better; he agreed.

So this week, solo from an undisclosed location while Ayelet celebrates her 30th in LA, Christian goes deep. A full side-by-side of Criteo and LiveRamp, a walkthrough of why the multiple gap between them makes almost no sense on the financials, and a concrete bull case: pay $58 a share, a 200%+ premium, then run an M&A play to build the agentic commerce OS for brands and retail.

The thesis isn't buy it cheap. It's buy it decisively.

What we cover: Who actually leaked the Vista story (and why Criteo's repeated phantom-deal leaks are a comms problem), the Criteo vs. LiveRamp side-by-side on revenue growth, revenue mix, EBITDA, and free cash flow, why LiveRamp's 107% net retention is at real risk once Publicis owns it, why Criteo's transactional model might be the safer bet in an agentic era where subscription pricing is under fire, the AI option value nobody's pricing in, and three specific M&A targets that would fix Criteo's biggest gap: no Amazon, no Walmart.

Plus two deals worth flagging: Podean's fifth acquisition (Social Commerce Club) and Brunner buying AdSkate.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

0:26 — Solo episode, life changes, and happy 30th to Ayelet

0:50 — Why we're revisiting Criteo/Vista: "you really could have done better"

1:30 — The backstory: Bloomberg, Reuters, and a 50% premium at ~$3.7B implied

2:00 — Who leaked it? Why back channels point at Criteo, not Vista

2:30 — Criteo's leak engine: Microsoft, Walmart, Skai — deals that never materialized

3:00 — The headline thesis: pay 2.5x revenue ex-TAC, then run an M&A play

4:00 — Side-by-side setup: Criteo vs. LiveRamp

4:30 — Revenue growth: LiveRamp at 9%, Criteo at 1% (and why that's misleading)

5:15 — Growth quality: the Roundel and Uber Eats churn, and 16% underlying retail media growth

5:45 — Why LiveRamp's 107% net retention is at risk under Publicis ownership

6:30 — Revenue type: true SaaS vs. transactional media economics

7:00 — Why subscription models are under fire in the agentic era

7:45 — EBITDA: Criteo at $407M vs. LiveRamp at $185M, at a quarter of the multiple

8:30 — Free cash flow: both are cash compounders with clean balance sheets

9:15 — Strategic buyers pay up, financial buyers don't — but Vista usually pays 10-20x

9:45 — The AI option value nobody's pricing: OpenAI's ChatGPT ads pilot, 2x AI-referred conversions

10:30 — The real asset: 4,100 brands, 225 retail media networks, $1B in quarterly activated spend

11:15 — The bull case: $58/share, $2.9B equity value, a 203% premium

12:00 — Why no board can responsibly ignore an offer like this

12:30 — M&A target #1: Skai — solves Amazon and Walmart, and they already know each other

13:30 — M&A target #2: Pacvue (Advent) — Amazon, Walmart, Instacart muscle (and the Helium 10 problem)

14:15 — Why The Trade Desk's April integrations create urgency

14:45 — M&A target #3: digital shelf analytics — and the Profitero/Publicis precedent

16:00 — The Christian math, summarized

17:00 — Deal hit: Podean acquires Social Commerce Club (deal #5)

17:45 — Deal hit: Brunner acquires AdScape — creative intelligence as an AI play

18:30 — Why more deals are moving to our Substack, and what's coming next

🔔 Subscribe for weekly M&A coverage on In/Organic

Connect with Christian and Ayelet

Ayelet's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-shipley-b16330149/

Christian's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hassold/

Web: https://www.inorganicpodcast.co

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Private equity just bid to take Criteo private at a 50%+ premium and two of the sharpest voices in commerce & media read the exact same filings and reached opposite conclusions.

Ayelet Shipley and Christian Hassold break down Vista Equity Partners' (with hedge fund Quinti Capital) proposed take-private of Criteo (Nasdaq: CRTO): the "melting ice cube" bear case vs. Ken Kubec's "Footnote Trade" bull case (reported retail-media revenue down 32% vs. ~24% underlying growth once you strip out an accounting change and two client roll-offs), why a business throwing off ~$400M in profit was trading around 2x EBITDA, the Luxembourg "re-domicile escape hatch," and whether Vista's playbook gives Criteo product oxygen or runs off its 900 engineers.

Plus the market update on AI marketing-tech venture rounds (geoSurge, Vendelux), and two quick deal hits with very different structures: Descartes x Drivin and Banzai x ConnectAndSell.

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 — Intro: Market & Deals Friday

00:49 — Market Update: VC keeps funding AI marketing tech (geoSurge, Vendelux)

03:06 — Feature: Vista + Quinti bid to take Criteo private — the facts

05:55 — The Operator's Read (Christian): toll road, or mispriced commerce-media asset?

11:32 — The Deal Architect's Read (Ayelet): incentives & the Luxembourg escape hatch

15:50 — Quick Hits: Descartes/Drivin & Banzai/ConnectAndSell

19:40 — Wrap

Reads referenced:

Chris Sheldon: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/chris-j-sheldon_criteos-retail-media-growth-fell-from-23-share-7480304433730441216-MyKw

Ken Kubec: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kenkubec_privateequity-adtech-retailmedia-ugcPost-7480605776760307713-dbqi

🔔 Subscribe for Market & Deals Friday — the strategic read on lower-middle-market M&A in commerce & media.

Connect with Christian and Ayelet

Ayelet's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-shipley-b16330149/

Christian's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hassold/

Web: https://www.inorganicpodcast.co

Disclaimer: analysis and commentary only, not investment advice.

The Vista/Quinti offer is as reported; Criteo has not announced a decision.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Walmart just bought its way into the connected TV arms race, and The Trade Desk is the biggest loser. In a ~$1.4B deal announced during Cannes Lions week, Walmart Connect is acquiring Vibe.co, the self-serve CTV/streaming ad platform, to close a 10x gap with Amazon's ad business.

Christian and Ayelet break down the deal from two distinct angles, the operator's read and the deal architect's read, plus a venture market update, hot tea on SPS Commerce quietly selling a business back to its founder, and eight rapid-fire quick hits in what's officially become the summer of add-ons.

One venture update. One deep dive, two POVs. Hot tea. Eight quick hits.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

0:38 — Happy Fourth of July, and what's on the agenda

2:19 — Market update: JustAI raises $17M Series A (Base10, Y Combinator, Peak XV)

3:00 — Concord raises $3M seed for agentic media buying, and why Vibe.co's CEO is an investor

4:34 — "The Summer of Add-ons": why fragmentation is fueling M&A

4:44 — The deal: Walmart Connect acquires Vibe.co, the "Google Ads of streaming"

6:25 — The numbers: ~$100M revenue, ~$1.4B deal, 10-14x revenue (and why it's not an AI deal)

8:00 — Walmart's M&A cadence and the Vizio precedent

8:54 — The 10x ad-revenue gap: Amazon at $82B vs. Walmart at $8.2B

9:30 — The advisors and why this was a CEO-to-CEO deal

9:50 — The operator's read: a capability tuck-in that buys 3-4 years

10:00 — Is the CTV TAM actually big enough? The Brian Wieser cannibalization argument

12:00 — Integration risk: folding a scrappy startup into a corporate giant

12:26 — The France factor: why acquiring 60 employees in Paris is its own challenge

14:00 — Why The Trade Desk is the biggest loser (per Ari Paparo)

14:38 — The deal architect's read: the founders' first big exit, sold from strength

16:55 — Why $180M in retention may not hold founders who don't need the money

17:31 — The real make-or-break: keeping the team hungry inside a giant

18:00 — Hot tea: SPS Commerce carves out Seller Investigators, sells it back to the founder

22:01 — Quick hits: Revmatics/DataFeedWatch, Moburst/Hyperzon, The Independents/Phantasm

22:51 — More hits: Samba TV/Bestever, Yes&/Modo Modo, Arketi/Sperling

24:00 — Martis Capital takes majority of Deerfield Group (~$280M, 12-14x EBITDA)

25:00 — The consistent 14x agency marker, and how to break past it into strategic territory

25:38 — Final thought: this is add-on summer

🔔 Subscribe for weekly M&A coverage on In/Organic

Connect with Christian and Ayelet

Ayelet's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-shipley-b16330149/

Christian's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hassold/

Web: https://www.inorganicpodcast.co

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Accenture Song's planned acquisition of the Whalar agency was called the largest creator economy transaction ever. The structure underneath that headline is far more interesting than the number.

In this special edition, Christian and Ayelet sit down with Chris Erwin of RockWater, one of the sharpest analysts in the creator economy, to go deep on what Accenture actually bought, what the founders kept, and why the deal structure tells the real story.

Chris published a standout newsletter on this deal, and we brought him on to share his expert POV: the carve-out logic, the multi-year partnership nobody has details on, the "largest deal ever" math, and what Accenture Song buys next.

What we cover: Why Neil Waller and James Street sold the agency but kept the broader creator-facing portfolio (Sixteenth, Foam, Moby Ventures, The Lighthouse, Umi Games), what the undisclosed multi-year partnership likely includes — global infrastructure, technology, enterprise client access, and balance-sheet capital, how the "$500M+ largest creator deal ever" claim squares with a $225-300M outside EV estimate, why the answer is probably a meaningful upfront payment plus a multi-year earnout, how Accenture's Droga5 precedent and stated M&A policy help reverse-engineer the structure, why the real value driver is media spend, measurement, and the performance data that unlocks $100B+ media budgets, the "do no harm" PMI era and why a prior 12-month working relationship de-risked the deal, and who Accenture Song buys next — plus why there's a genuine shortage of scaled independent creator agencies left to acquire.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 — Show note: why this special edition replaces Market and Deals Friday

1:09 — Welcome and guest intro: Chris Erwin of RockWater

1:38 — The backstory: Accenture Song's June 8th carve-out of the Whalar agency

3:08 — "They sold the engine and kept the garage" — what that actually means

4:17 — Speculating on the undisclosed multi-year partnership

5:44 — Why life changes fast when you co-sell through Accenture's SOW machine

6:37 — Predicting how the integration goes (and why a prior relationship matters)

7:37 — The "do no harm" PMI era for people-heavy agency businesses

8:01 — Is this really the largest creator economy transaction ever?

8:49 — Reverse-engineering the structure: Accenture's M&A policy and the Droga5 precedent

10:36 — Earnout norms: 3-5 years on larger deals, 2-3 on sub-$100M EV

11:30 — Christian's thesis: Accenture is buying creator media dollars

12:04 — The big-picture framing: consultancies pushing into marketing services

14:05 — Why the materiality of the number unlocks everything Accenture can sell alongside it

14:53 — What Accenture Song buys next — bolt-on capabilities across the creator stack

16:56 — The real problem: a shortage of scaled independent creator agencies

18:01 — The creator commerce wave and where the next big deals get built

🎙️ Guest: Chris Erwin, Founder, RockWater

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrnov/

https://wearerockwater.com/accenture-song-buys-whalar/

🔔 Subscribe for weekly M&A coverage on In/Organic

Connect with Christian and Ayelet

Ayelet's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-shipley-b16330149/

Christian's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hassold/

Web: https://www.inorganicpodcast.co

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Steve Engelbrecht started Sitation from a rental apartment in Somerville, Massachusetts — five weeks after being laid off in the chaos that followed 9/11. Today it's a 62-person commerce enablement firm with a client roster of household names and a defensible niche the big SIs can't easily replicate.

Recorded live at Salsify's Digital Shelf Summit in Atlanta, Christian sat down with Steve — founder and CEO of Sitation — for a conversation about building a services-plus-software business in commerce, how AI is rewriting the buy-vs-build equation, and why a 62-person specialist can out-maneuver Deloitte Digital and Accenture Song in product data.

What we cover: The Sitation origin story and the early bet on PIM before it was a category, the three pillars of the business today (systems integration, managed services, and proprietary software), why the software-services convergence is playing out in real time, the "headless PIM in 2026" conversation with Salsify's CEO and what AI agents, MCP, and CLIs mean for the future of product data, how AI lowered the bar for participation and changed buy-vs-build, the Philips case study — a 111% conversion lift on a single SKU by optimizing content, not price, why 90%+ of Sitation's team came from industry and how that makes them stickier than the big SIs, and how Steve thinks about Sitation's future: international expansion as a platform vs. fitting neatly into a larger strategic's plans.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

0:26 — Welcome from Salsify's Digital Shelf Summit in Atlanta

1:00 — The origin story: first day of work September 10, 2001, laid off five weeks later

2:11 — Early to commerce enablement — and Boston as a commerce software hotbed

3:02 — What Sitation does today: the three business segments

5:25 — The 2019 "pick a lane" problem and why software-services convergence vindicated the strategy

6:16 — How AI is changing the buy-vs-build equation

7:36 — The "headless PIM in 2026" conversation with Salsify's CEO

8:33 — Salesforce going headless and the new customization opportunity for SIs

10:00 — APIs, the MCP revolution, CLIs, and why schema matters for AI agents

11:05 — How a 62-person firm out-maneuvers multi-thousand-person SIs

11:42 — Why this is a massive market, not a zero-sum game

12:30 — The Philips case study: 111% conversion lift on one SKU without touching price

13:30 — Why multinationals choose a boutique over Deloitte Digital or Accenture Song

15:46 — The strategic question: platform play or acquisition target?

16:29 — International expansion as the organic (or capital-backed) growth path

17:40 — Why Sitation's platform credentials make it an attractive, hard-to-replicate target

18:45 — Why you can't build Sitation's early-mover position — you have to buy it

🎙️ Guest: Steve Engelbrecht, Founder & CEO, Sitation | Recorded at Salsify Digital Shelf Summit, Atlanta

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenengelbrecht/

🔔 Subscribe for weekly M&A coverage on In/Organic

Connect with Christian and Ayelet

Ayelet's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-shipley-b16330149/

Christian's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hassold/

Web: https://www.inorganicpodcast.co

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fourteen deals worth mentioning in a single week. And those are just the ones that surfaced.

The week before Cannes, the dam broke. Christian and Ayelet break down the deepest deal review we've done yet — anchored by a transaction Ayelet's team actually advised on the sell side: Residence acquiring GateMaker, a female-founded creator and influencer agency with a blue-chip beauty roster.

Plus a sponsor-to-sponsor recap in commerce services (Bluebird Group + Bertram Capital), and a rapid-fire run through 12 more deals across creator, beauty, luxury PR, B2B, and commerce.

One platform investment. One deep dive. Twelve quick hits. Under 20 minutes.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

0:39 — Welcome to Market and Deals Friday — and a 14-deal week

1:12 — Did everyone wait until the week before Cannes to announce?

1:37 — Coming up: a special edition with Chris Erwin of RockWater on the Accenture/Whalar deal

2:00 — Market update: Bluebird Group partners with Bertram Capital

2:20 — Bertram's buy-and-build model and the Bertram Labs tech advantage

3:00 — Reading the deal size from a $1.6B control fund with a 43% IRR

4:00 — Why a relationship-driven commerce services business resists AI disruption

5:35 — Deep dive: Residence acquires GateMaker — a sell-side deal Ayelet's team ran

6:05 — GateMaker's founders, blue-chip beauty roster, and creator economy pedigree

7:20 — Did Residence already have creator capability? (No — this was the capability buy)

7:50 — Second acquisition in under five months: Residence is now a 9-agency network

8:44 — The Gemspring-backed platform build and why Residence is now an active acquirer

9:28 — The "anti-holdco" model — and Christian's pushback on the framing

10:42 — Why creator and influence relationships command a premium right now

11:30 — The cross-industry pattern: do-no-harm PMI for people-heavy businesses

11:56 — Advisors: Palazzo and Speed M&A on the sell side

12:32 — Brinkley the deal-finding agent and a 20-deal week

13:20 — Quick hit: Front Row acquires Carbon Beauty (second deal this year)

13:57 — Quick hit: Mazarine acquires Bacchus — luxury PR and UHNW access

14:10 — Quick hit: Huge acquires Rotate — composable commerce

14:27 — Quick hit: Motion Agency acquires LKHNS — B2B and video (Kim Everl's 7th)

15:30 — Quick hit: Akeneo acquires Pricing Hub — PIM moves into pricing

16:33 — Rapid fire: Mile Marker/Lyfe, Legion Advertising, Factual/Intelsio, Everything Branding/Darlington

17:44 — The week's only disclosed number: 2X acquires KnownWell at a $400M combined valuation

18:09 — Quick hit: Scorpion acquires One SEO Digital

18:32 — 14 deals, one disclosed price: the lower middle market buying capability quietly

18:52 — Don't miss the Erik Huberman interview (Ep. 71) + the Chris Erwin special coming up

🔔 Subscribe for weekly M&A coverage on In/Organic

Connect with Christian and Ayelet

Ayelet's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-shipley-b16330149/

Christian's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hassold/

Web: https://www.inorganicpodcast.co

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Erik Huberman has acquired 23 agencies in 10 years — and he doesn't pay cash up front for any of them.

Recorded live at Possible 2026 Ayelet sat down with Erik Huberman, founder of Hawke Media, for one of the most candid conversations about agency M&A we've ever had. No spin, no posturing — just the actual mechanics of how a bootstrapped agency built a 23-deal acquisition machine focused on the lower and middle market that everyone else ignores.

Erik breaks down the deal structure that puts growth (not cash) at the center, why he intentionally did 10 deals in one year to "break the system" and learn integration the hard way, the advice from a roll-up veteran that made him simplify his contracts, and why a third of his deals don't go well — and how he absorbs that without PE backing.

What we cover: Why Hawke Media stays focused on growth-stage and challenger brands instead of going enterprise, the deal structure where Hawke guarantees the founder's profitability and takes over HR, accounting, legal, and operations, why "no cash up front" filters out the wrong sellers (and the ego trap behind it), how Hawke gets to a term sheet in three days, why over-complicating contracts benefits the person being tricky, the "would you do all 10 deals again?" advice that changed everything, why Mountain Gate and most PE want him to go enterprise — and why he won't, and what it would actually take for Erik to bring on a venture-minded private equity partner.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

1:02 — The Hawke Media mission: be the best at the lower and middle market everyone else abandons

2:04 — Three sides of the business: 23 acquisitions, a venture fund, and an AI tool

2:23 — How HawkAI started as a predictive analytics tool and became an internal advantage

3:23 — 10 years of M&A: from one deal a year to 10 in a single year

4:00 — Why Erik did 10 deals at once to intentionally break and rebuild the system

4:30 — The mistake of over-complicating contracts to protect the downside

5:22 — Putting the risk back on the seller — and the advice that made him reverse course

6:32 — The actual deal structure: guaranteed profitability, no cash up front

7:03 — Why a 23-deal track record means he never has to speak hypothetically

8:13 — Who this deal structure actually works for (and who it doesn't)

9:23 — The "I'll be a billionaire next year" founder problem

10:09 — Why founders get bogged down by the back-office work they hate

10:29 — Where Hawke fits vs. Mountain Gate, Herringbone, and the scout fund operators

11:21 — Why most PE wants Erik to go enterprise — and why he says no

12:17 — The "wild wild west" of lower middle market deals

12:29 — Three days to a term sheet: how the process actually moves

13:49 — Why "no cash up front" is the first thing he says, and the ego piece behind it

14:36 — Why simplicity wins: the rev-share story and avoiding the retrade game

15:21 — Doing this at scale now vs. before the name — why you can't just copy the playbook

15:45 — Why a third of deals don't go well, and why you have to be able to absorb it

16:45 — Acquisition isn't for everyone: you have to build the infrastructure first

17:23 — Why integrity and over-disclosure are baked into how the deal works

18:11 — "Ask me what I had for breakfast" — radical transparency with sellers

18:57 — What's next: dominating lower and middle market marketing, the reverse-franchise model

19:18 — Would Erik ever sell? Why he's not bowing out — but might take a PE partner

20:54 — Why he needs a venture-minded PE fund, not a traditional buyout thesis

22:38 — Cleaning up the balance sheet and earning the right to that conversation

22:52 — Entrepreneurship as a "mental illness" and the Mexican taco stand exit plan

Connect with Erik on LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikhuberman/

Connect with Christian and Ayelet

Ayelet's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-shipley-b16330149/

Christian's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hassold/

Web: https://www.inorganicpodcast.co

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A month forecasted that Accenture was about to make a material acquisition in the creator space. This week it happened. Accenture Song is acquiring Whaler Agency — the most awarded creator agency in the Western hemisphere in a carve-out plus three-year partnership that's far more interesting than the headline.

But is it really "the largest creator economy transaction ever"? Christian runs the math. The claim doesn't survive contact with a calculator unless there's a lot more going on than a simple agency purchase.

Christian and Ayelet break down the structure, what Accenture actually bought (hint: it's the $600M in media spend and the measurement layer, not just the creators), and why this probably isn't the end of Accenture's media buying spree.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

0:39 — Welcome to Market and Deals Friday, June 12

1:20 — The victory lap: our Episode 61 Accenture prediction came true

2:06 — Why the deal took longer than expected (deals just take time)

2:20 — Why we didn't name Whaler at the time — protecting a people-heavy business

3:05 — When and how to tell your team you're selling: a real consideration for owners

3:46 — What happened: Whaler Agency joins Accenture Song, terms undisclosed

4:28 — The $44B creator economy and why Whaler sits in the middle of it

4:50 — The real prize: $600M in media spend + the measurement and data layer

5:33 — Reading it against the holdcos: consultants are coming for creator businesses

6:16 — The math problem: can this really be "the largest creator economy deal ever"?

6:50 — Why a $500M price on ~$12M EBITDA (40x) doesn't add up for the agency alone

8:00 — The carve-out + call option + licensing theory that makes the number work

8:30 — Is Whaler Agency just step one? Why Christian doesn't think so

9:46 — Accenture Song's creator build: 9 acquisitions in 2024 alone

10:16 — Why $600M in media spend is the growth-acceleration play vs. single-digit agency growth

12:28 — Moelis advised Whaler; Accenture Song's corp dev ran it in-house

13:46 — Why this is a planned (not closed) deal — and what shareholder disclosure will reveal

14:35 — Quick hit: Walker Sands acquires Rev Partners (Mountain Gate turns on the engine)

15:35 — Why Mountain Gate is already doing M&A less than a year into Walker Sands

16:00 — Quick hit: Channable acquires Metreon — server-side conversion tracking

16:41 — Quick hit: Sitecore acquires Scrunch — AI search optimization beyond traditional SEO

18:16 — The connective tissue: four deals, zero disclosed prices, all capability buys

18:31 — Why AI won't kill feed management anytime soon (the 20-30% false positive rabbit hole)

20:11 — The bet: Accenture's next move is about media, not agencies

20:38 — Structure over headline EV — the drum worth beating for every smaller shop

21:06 — Wrap and a Knicks championship wish

🔔 Subscribe for weekly M&A coverage on In/Organic

Connect with Christian and Ayelet

Ayelet’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-shipley-b16330149/

Christian's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hassold/

Web: https://www.inorganicpodcast.co

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kevin Simonson has now sold two agencies. The first — Metric Digital to Wpromote in 2020. The second — adMixt to Interluxe Group, announced this week. And he came on In/Organic Live the same week the deal closed to talk about what's actually different the second time around.

Christian and Ayelet sat down with Kevin — outgoing CEO of adMixt, now President of Performance Marketing at Interluxe Group — for an unusually candid conversation about deal structure, integration, and why the headline multiple tells you almost nothing about whether a deal was good.

What we cover: Why Kevin took the adMixt CEO seat (a turnaround that wasn't actually broken), how a single text from a friend on a Mountain Gate board started the whole process, why there was no formal auction and the buyer recommended his own banker, why a strategic that didn't already offer his service line was the more interesting buyer, the "do no harm" integration approach — no title mapping, no email changes until 2027, how deal structures have shifted from 2020 to 2026 (equity loans, rollover treatment, the 2022 law change), and why Kevin now just asks friends "was it good or bad?" instead of asking about the multiple.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

0:12 — Welcome and guest intro: Kevin Simonson, outgoing CEO of adMixt

0:45 — Kevin's background: iProspect intern to Metric Digital to Wpromote to adMixt

1:39 — What adMixt does: "we get people to buy things on the internet"

2:07 — Why adMixt is different — they built their own media buying software

3:03 — Who is Interluxe Group? Experiential, media, and PR for luxury brands

4:02 — The Mountain Gate connection and how a single text started the deal

4:50 — Reverse due diligence: why trusted relationships de-risked the process

5:52 — No formal process: how the strategic buyer side reached out and stayed updated quarterly

6:46 — Why the buyer recommended Palazzo as Kevin's banker

7:26 — Why Interluxe was the right buyer: a brand-new service line vs. overlap at Wpromote

9:29 — The "do no harm" integration: no title mapping, no email changes, slow roll to 2027

10:10 — Deal structure: how it's changed from 2020 to 2026 (and the 2022 law change)

11:14 — Ayelet on the legal mechanics: asset vs. stock vs. membership interest purchase

12:56 — Why the multiple lies: "just ask if it was good or bad"

13:43 — Why structure matters more than the headline EV

14:07 — Mountain Gate's acquisition tear and the standing invite to Shamrock

15:11 — Kevin's credit to founder Zach and the foundation that made adMixt worth buying

16:15 — Why this was an excellent turnaround, well landed

🎙️ Guest: Kevin Simonson, President of Performance Marketing, Interluxe Group

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinsimonson/

Connect with Christian and Ayelet

Ayelet’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-shipley-b16330149/

Christian's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hassold/

Web: https://www.inorganicpodcast.co

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