The publicly traded marketing tech firm Zeta Global is making its biggest-ever acquisition.
Zeta is best-known as a platform that helps big companies organize their customer data and find new customers using its own dataset and adtech tools. Now, it’s looking to double down on helping brands improve their customer loyalty.
On Tuesday, Zeta told Business Insider exclusively that it had entered an agreement to acquire martech company Marigold’s enterprise software business for $325 million. The assets include Marigold’s Loyalty brand, the email platforms Cheetah Digital and Sailthru, and the marketing automation platform Selligent.
Marigold will continue to operate its business focused on small and midsize companies, which includes its Campaign Monitor, Emma, and Vuture products.
Zeta said the move would expand its customer base of Fortune 500 brands. Marigold serves more than 100 large brands and will help meaningfully expand Zeta’s footprint in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, Zeta CEO David Steinberg told Business Insider in an interview. Zeta has 567 “global enterprise clients,” Steinberg said.
Following a recent period of relatively tepid M&A activity, Zeta’s acquisition of Marigold is an indication that large deals are resuming in the adtech and martech spaces. In the first half of this year, the number of deals valued at more than $100 million in the adtech, martech, and digital content sectors increased by 8% compared to the same period in 2024, according to investment bank Luma Partners. Last week, the publicly traded ad verification and measurement firm Integral Ad Science announced it would be taken private by the PE firm Novacap in a $1.9 billion deal. In June, DoorDash acquired the adtech firm Symbiosys for $175 million.
Zeta’s flywheel strategy
This year, Zeta has been doubling down on a strategy to get its clients to use more than one of its services. For example, a clothing company might use Zeta to organize its customer and sales data, identify similar audiences to target with advertising on Instagram or a streaming TV service, and then send those customers personalized emails after they make a purchase.
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Zeta said in August that it expects to bring in around $1.2 billion in revenue this year, representing a 26% increase from 2024. Zeta’s stock is up about 7% so far this year.
Acquisitions have helped Zeta grow in a competitive market, where its marketing cloud rivals include those from big players like Salesforce, Oracle, and Adobe. Zeta has acquired 17 companies since its founding in 2007. Notably, last year, it acquired LiveIntent, a fellow martech platform known for operating an email-based ad network, for $250 million.
The Marigold transaction fits Zeta’s M&A playbook of acquiring smaller companies with attractive customer bases and strong teams that can be quickly integrated, Steinberg said. Zeta expects Marigold will bolster its bottom line in the first year after the deal closes.
By adding loyalty products to its tech stack, Zeta’s algorithm will be able to ingest “trillions of data points” to help train and improve its targeting and advertising algorithms, Steinberg said.
“The flywheel just really begins to take off,” Steinberg said.
Zeta has agreed to pay $100 million in cash and $100 million in shares up front for Marigold’s enterprise business. The remainder, for an amount equivalent to $125 million in cash and stock, will be paid via a seller note, delivered within three months of the transaction closing, the company said.
