Ad TechMergers & AcquisitionsJune 25, 2026

Ad tech scrambles for LiveRamp alternatives as Publicis deal looms

Publicis Groupe's planned acquisition of ad-tech firm LiveRamp is prompting advertisers and agencies to seek alternative independent data connectivity providers, spurring opportunities for cloud-native identity and activation platforms like Hightouch and MadConnect. Industry executives anticipate a fragmented replacement landscape of interoperable identity graphs, cloud-resident collaboration tools, and possible further M&A.

Key Takeaways

Hightouch co-CEO Tejas Manohar is positioning the company as a neutral data connectivity successor, hosting ad execs at a Cannes dinner to make the case — while separately offering up to $1.2B for LiveRamp's identity assets
Cloud-native activation layers built on Snowflake, Databricks, or BigQuery are pitching against LiveRamp at a fraction of cost by avoiding the "data tax" of duplicating customer files in a third-party environment
No single vendor can replace LiveRamp's breadth — the likely outcome is patchwork stacks combining in-house data assets, one or two external identity graphs, and a cloud-resident collaboration layer
Ciarán O'Kane of First Party Capital expects a wave of strategic M&A as agencies acquire specialist identity graph and onboarding players to plug stack gaps without Publicis dependency
Winterberry Group's Bruce Biegel argues the real moat is marketplace connections, not identity itself — a clean room without surrounding infrastructure is closer to storage than a solution

Why It Matters

Agencies that relied on LiveRamp as a neutral identity and data onboarding utility now face a structural conflict: routing client data through infrastructure owned by a competing holding company. Cloud-native alternatives that keep first-party data in the client's own stack address this concern directly and at lower cost. For the broader streaming and CTV advertising ecosystem, the fragmentation of identity infrastructure means advertisers will need to manage multiple identity graphs and collaboration tools rather than plugging into a single hub. Watch whether Hightouch's unsolicited $800M–$1.2B bid for LiveRamp's identity assets — with a June 26 response deadline — draws a Publicis response before the acquisition closes.

Additional Context

Publicis Groupe announced its agreement to acquire LiveRamp on May 17, 2026, for a total enterprise value of $2.167 billion in an all-cash transaction at $38.50 per share — a 29.8% premium to LiveRamp's closing price the prior trading day, per the official press release. LiveRamp reported full fiscal 2026 revenue of $813 million with a trailing five-year CAGR of 13%, connecting over 25,000 publisher domains and 500+ technology and data partners across 14 markets. The deal is expected to close before year-end 2026, subject to regulatory and shareholder approval. Per AdExchanger (May 2026), LiveRamp has 846 direct customers, down from more than 900 in late 2024, and its RampID identifier functions as the most common shared currency across programmatic advertising.

On June 16, 2026, per Axios, Hightouch sent a letter to Publicis's board offering $800 million to $1.2 billion in cash and stock for LiveRamp's identity and data onboarding businesses, including RampID and LiveRamp Connect. Hightouch, valued at $2.75 billion after a $150 million Series D in April 2026 led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives and Bain Capital Ventures, set a June 26 deadline for a Publicis response. Per Adweek (June 2026), Hightouch has reached $100 million in annual recurring revenue and counts Domino's, DoorDash, Spotify, and the NBA among its clients.

The independent data collaboration category has already consolidated sharply. Per AdExchanger (May 2026), LiveRamp acquired Habu in 2024, and WPP took over InfoSum last year, leaving no standalone independent players in the clean-room collaboration space before the Publicis deal. Publicis itself acquired Lotame in 2025 and Epsilon for $4.4 billion in 2019, building a vertically integrated data and identity stack that rival holding companies now treat as competitively conflicted infrastructure.

Read full article at digiday.com