Accordant Media, LLC (“Accordant”), a data-driven, full-service programmatic advertising company and technology solution provider has been acquired by Dentsu Aegis Network. The company and its proprietary technology, Accordant ATS™, will become part of Dentsu Aegis Network’s programmatic buying offering Amnet, part of the group’s media investment platform, Amplifi.

JEGI CLARITY (www.jegiclarity.com), the leading independent investment bank for the global media, information, marketing, software and tech-enabled services sectors, headquartered in New York, NY, represented Accordant in this transaction.

The acquisition of Accordant accelerates Dentsu Aegis Network’s capabilities, bringing a differentiated offering in the rapidly developing area of programmatic and data-led performance buying. The move also supports Dentsu Aegis Network’s goal of becoming a 100 percent digital economy business by 2020.

Through its owned technology, Accordant, gives marketers greater control and effectiveness in their marketing investments, driving competitive advantage through better ROI, insights and performance. Founded in 2010, the company has been honored with several leading industry awards including ‘Crain’s New York Best Places to Work in 2015’ and ‘Deloitte 2015 North America Technology Fast 500.’ Its strong team of 70 programmatic specialists sits across offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and London, and counts many notable brands amongst its clients, including Anthem, AutoNation, Cars.com, Kayak, and Zipcar.

The Accordant ATS™ cross-channel technology system, including a Data Management Platform (DMP), custom data models, associated bidding and analytics tools, will enhance Amnet’s current technology stack and bring cutting edge targeting solutions to Dentsu Aegis Network’s clients. Following the transaction, Accordant’s direct-to-client business will retain its branding and will continue to work with and grow its client base as a new revenue stream within the group.

Following the acquisition, Accordant’s impressive leadership team, including Arthur Muldoon, CEO and Co-Founder, and Matthew Greitzer, COO and Co-Founder, will lead the combined Amnet and Accordant operations in the US, reporting to Amplifi US President Lucas Cridland. Muldoon and Greitzer will take on the titles of co-CEO Amnet US.

“Data underpins everything we do for our clients, and the ability to manage and deploy data in real time in service of client media planning and investment is critical to the success in the digital economy. The US is the largest and most sophisticated programmatic market and is expected to continue expanding. The acquisition of Accordant will further strengthen our abilities in this area, and positions us well to meet the needs of our increasingly digitally led clients,” said Rob Horler, CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network US.

“We are thrilled to join the Dentsu Aegis Network and look forward to bringing Accordant’s data-driven marketing capabilities to a larger group of world-class marketers,” said Art Mudoon, co-CEO of Amnet US. “We know the Amnet team well, and have always respected their position in the market. We look forward to joining our teams together,” he added.

“Our ATS™ platform is a powerful tool for data-driven, programmatic marketers,” said Matt Greitzer, co-CEO of Amnet US. “We are extremely excited to give Amnet clients the opportunity to tap into our leading edge technology.”

Amnet has grown significantly over the course of the last five years, and is now represented in 42 markets and counts 640 people in its ranks.

According to eMarketer,more than two-thirds of all digital display advertising will be purchased programmatically in 2016. In the US, programmatic digital display ad spending will reach £16.7bn ($22.1bn) in 2016 and is expected to grow by 24.3% to £20.7bn ($27.5bn) in 2017.