Was (is) LiveRamp the Switzerland of data?

The "Switzerland of data" is no longer independent. It vanished on a Sunday in Paris.

I am resisting the urge to use an obnoxious amount of World Cup metaphors in this post. Allow me this one:

Instead of trying to play and win the game, Arthur Sadoun and Publicis just bought the pitch everyone plays on.

It has been a quiet couple of quarters in adtech M&A, but the announcement shattered the peace. Publicis Groupe is acquiring LiveRamp for $2.2 billion.

I've spent 19 years in this crazy industry. I've watched identity graphs rise, fall, and merge. I've seen holding companies buy data platforms while the indy's started to wither away. Even in a market full of massive acquisitions, this the biggest shock to the system in probably a decade.

💡

THE IRONY. In 2018, IPG bought Acxiom for $2.3 billion. In that transaction, IPG explicitly spun off LiveRamp. They let it go free. They wanted to focus on data marketing services while leaving the raw identity pipeline independent. Now, IPG's biggest rival has snatched up the very baby they left on the doorstep.

Is the neutral middle gone? Yup.

For a lot of us in the market, LiveRamp was our shared utility. Very little fuss from any partner if you wanted to use a RampID.

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