The trend, moreover, is likely to continue this year, which in many ways could be positive for digital marketers.

Last year, Verizon made headlines with its $5 billion purchase of Yahoo. With the marketing assets of Yahoo, the deal is giving Verizon a chance to compete with digital advertising giants Google and Facebook.

Programmatic advertising also saw its share of deals, with video enabler TubeMogul being snatched up by Adobe for $540 million. For Adobe, the deal was just one of many for the company in 2016.

Not to be outdone, CRM firm Salesforce.com has also been aggressively acquiring firms as part of its push into e-commerce and artificial intelligence. In 2016 the company was involved in at least 10 deals and was even considering buying Twitter.

The rapid pace of merger and acquisitions is likely to continue in 2017. On one hand, consolidation could play a big role in helping to streamline product offerings. For digital advertisers, such a consolidation could be significant. Late last year, for example, Forbes reported that the number of firms offering marketing solutions had grown from 1,000 in 2014 to about 4,000 in 2016.

For digital marketing executives, sorting through 4,000 technology vendors to develop marketing stacks while ensuring that different technology products can work together is a daunting task. In theory, acquisitions can result in firms offering multiple products that are proven to work in a seamless fashion, which could simplify matters for marketers.

While those advantages will support the rapid pace of mergers and acquisitions, other forces are at work. Any young and growing industry eventually enters a consolidation phase in which leading firms try to build economies of scale by leveraging their resources across multiple product offerings. At the same time, mergers and acquisitions give firms an opportunity to cross sell their products to a diverse array of clients.

Near record cash balances on corporate balance sheets and potential tax changes are also likely to support merger and acquisition activity this year. In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, businesses have been rapidly growing their earnings while also showing considerable restraint in spending, which has caused cash balance to reach near record levels. Armed with considerable amounts of cash, many companies are well positioned to expand their capabilities and secure additional clients through acquisitions.

Proposed corporate tax cuts by President-elect Donald Trump and a Republican controlled Congress could also support merger and acquisition activity by helping companies boost their cash war chest by increasing their earnings. The end result is likely to be a rapid pace of change within the marketing industry. As with any period of change, firms that can quickly adapt to competitive threats and emerging client needs with thrive while other firms that fail to respond to a quickly evolving marketplace will flounder.