Scott Denne has covered the intersection of technology and capital markets for his entire career. In late 2023, Scott began his second tour at 451 Research, the technology research arm of S&P Market Intelligence, where he covers acquisitions, valuation trends and private equity investments. His research explores changes in dealmaking and shifts in valuation. His reports cover broad movements in the tech M&A markets, private-equity investments, analysis of specific deals and forecasts of deal activity in multiple sectors of the software industry. Previously, Scott spent two years as Director of Technology Research for BWG Strategy. In that role, Scott provided primary research to buyside equity investors through a mix of surveys and moderated group discussions. The coverage was built around collecting spend intention, sentiment and budget outlook from customers and channel partners across a universe of 50+ enterprise software tickers. Prior to an eight-year stint as an M&A analyst with 451 Research, Scott was a reporter covering startups and venture capital for several Dow Jones publications, including VentureWire, Private Equity Analyst and The Wall Street Journal. He has been quoted by financial and technology publications, including TheStreet.com, Wired, CNBC.com, AdExchanger and CMSwire.
Venture capitalists have spent an increasing amount of money to produce a shrinking amount of inventory. Despite the expanding size of the asset class, VCs have fewer high-growth companies to sell than ever before. That's hardly fertile ground for a much-needed turnaround in the exit market.
COVID-era venture capital funds are breaking records. Historically speaking, they are both large and awful. The amount of capital they have taken in and the amount they have returned so far are, respectively, a high and low point for the industry.
It may be raining again in a once-parched corner of the tech M&A market. Acquisitions of marketing and advertising software companies soared in 2021 and have fallen every year since. Although two weeks don't make a year, there are early signs of a rebound in 2025.
Rokt has acquired mParticle, an early entrant in the customer data platform market, to tap into a $43 billion opportunity for improved cross- and upselling. CDPs can help reduce customer friction points such as advertising discrepancies during the path to purchase, as well as enable performance improvements.
As they seek to grab their share of the emerging AI market, the big four cloud companies are spending on everything except M&A. Their venture investments and capital expenses are surging as they buy up chips to train AI models and back startups to code them.
Supply chain software vendor SPS Commerce opens the year with its largest-ever acquisition, paying $210 million for Carbon6, a maker of revenue recovery software for sellers on Amazon's marketplace. The deal marks a fitting start for a software category that has put up an expanding number of prints since the early days of COVID-19.
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