Millennial Media has agreed to acquire mobile supply-side platform (SSP) Nexage in a deal worth $107.5m, in the latest round a period of unprecedented M&A activity in the programmatic advertising sector. 

The deal announced today (23 September) will see the publicly-listed Millennial acquire Boston-based Nexage for $107.5m in cash and stock, with Michael Barrett, Millennial Media, CEO and president, claiming the purchase formed part of his ambition to offer a "full-stack solution" to advertisers, as well as improve yield for its advertisers.

Under the terms of the agreement, Millennial Media will pay approximately $22.5 million in cash and approximately $85 million in stock, subject to certain adjustments.

Barrett added: " The opportunity to integrate Nexage’s programmatic technology with our deep remotes and heritage in agency relationships will uniquely position us in this fast paced ecosystem.

"Together, our companies will be able to offer managed services for agencies and a complete set of programmatic tools for automated buyers."

Nexage is connected to over 225 programmatic buyers and networks, and the addition of its wares to Millennial Media's current offering means it can offer advertisers the ability to buy ad impressions using either programmatic direct deals, or via private exchange and open auctions.

Plus Nexage's supply-side platform (SSP) means publishers can impressions to classic networks - including the Facebook Audience Network, Google’s Admob, and iAd.

The newly augmented Millennial offering, also lets publishers sell campaigns direct to advertisers using its ad server. Meanwhile, Millennial Media’s existing data management platform (DMP) means the pair can enrich ad impressions through first- and third-party data.

Nexage shareholders will receive approximately 37 million newly issued shares of Millennial Media based on a price of $2.21 per share of Millennial Media common stock, which is the volume weighted average trading price per share during the fifteen trading days immediately up to and including September 16, 2014, corresponding to approximately 26% ownership for Nexage shareholders on a pro forma combined basis, based on issued and outstanding shares.

The deal comes a day after AppNexus announced it is to acquire Open AdStream from Xaxis, while GroupM outfit's parent company WPP will take a $25m stake in the ad tech outfit.

It also comes a week after a survey published last week by advisory firm Results International demonstrated that the first half of 2014 saw 209 M&A deals in the ad tech sector, making it a record period for such activity.