BeReal Acquired for €500m; Global Ad Spend to Rise 7.8%; Paramount and Skydance Merger Off the Table

On today’s news digest: BeReal Acquired for €500m; Global Ad Spend to Rise 7.8%; Paramount and Skydance Merger Off the Table 

BeReal, the Paris-based photo sharing app which promotes authenticity on the platform, has been acquired by French video game maker, Voodoo for a sum of €500m (£422m). Alexandre Yazdi, Voodoo’s chief executive, revealed that they plan to launch paid advertising on BeReal, with the aim of making the platform profitable. BeReal’s downloads have been decreasing since their peak in late 2022, although monthly active users have remained fairly steady since then at around 50 million. However, the planned updates may not go down so well with the app’s loyal users. 

Turning our attention to the latest prediction figures for global ad spend, expenditure is expected to rise 7.8% this year. This will bring its total to USD $989.8bn (£772bn), according to GroupM, in an upward revision from the 5.3% growth they forecasted in December. Spurred on by China’s economic recovery, further digital growth and the accelerating adoption of retail media, AI and CTV, the figures promise a positive outlook for the industry’s near future. Retail media particularly is expected to flourish, with forecasted growth of 17.5%. Looking at the UK, total ad revenue is predicted to grow by 4.9%. 

Now panning to the entertainment industry, ongoing talks between Paramount and Skydance which were expected to lead to a merger have broken down. Shari Redstone ended discussions to sell her controlling stake of Paramount to Skydance and merge the companies, shutting down months of negotiations. National Amusements – Paramount’s parent company owned by the Redstone family – stated that both parties could not agree on mutually acceptable terms. Reportedly, Redstone is now likely to pursue a sale of National Amusements without attempting to merge Paramount into another company.

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