After the phrase “tomato girl summer” emerged last summer, you best believe that fashion brands took notice.

Clothing retailer Lisa Says Gah partnered with Hunt’s on tomato-shaped earrings and a line of apparel, and designers like Rachel Antonoff and Tyler McGillivary are selling tomato-print pants and shirts. Most recently, Staud unveiled a version of its Tommy purse with a beaded tomato print on the front in partnership with the New York-based Italian restaurant Monte’s at the Manor and food brand Monte’s Fine Foods, which has since sold out (but will be restocked in mid-July, per the brand).

“We always love being playful with our designs of the Tommy [bag] and being opportunistic with fun trends that are also on brand for us,” George Augusto, co-founder and artistic director at Staud, told us in an email. “Tomato girl summer,” he added, was the “perfect inspiration” for the design.

PJ Monte, founder and CEO of Monte’s Fine Foods, told us his brand was working on tomato-inspired apparel long before tomato girl summer. Monte’s branched into DTC in 2020, Monte told us, and since then has sold merch and struck up collaborations with apparel brands like Noah NY and Ignored Prayers.

While fashion collabs may seem “untraditional” for an Italian-food brand, he said, the (tomato) juice has been worth the squeeze, leading to press attention and sales for Monte’s.

“That’s what keeps me up at night and up and ready to go in the morning,” Monte said. “How can we do something that innovates this space that people traditionally don’t do?”

Continue reading here.—KH

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Ad-tech executives and their investment bankers apparently didn’t get the memo about summer doldrums.

After nearly two years of almost-complete hibernation, the industry experienced a flurry of M&A activity last month. In fact, there was a different acquisition announced, on average, every week.

• On June 3, contextual advertising company Seedtag acquired supply-side CTV platform Beachfront Media. On June 11, demand-side platform Madhive acquired Frequence, an omnichannel marketing platform.
• On June 12, the supply-side platforms Equativ and Sharethrough announced a merger. On June 18, mobile ad-tech company Verve acquired the Jun Group for $185 million.

So what’s happening? The advertising industry might be waking up from a long slumber. Last year’s lag in activity represented a “decade-long low” in M&A activity, according to ad-tech investment group Luma Partners’s 2024 State of Digital report, which cited “macro uncertainty” and a “fear of a recession” as factors that could have affected any dealmaking.

Defying some of that uncertainty and fear, the ad industry has kept on humming this year, outpacing financial forecasts and industry expectations. In early June, GroupM announced that industry revenue is expected to surpass the trillion-dollar mark next year, a year earlier than previously expected.

“2023 was all about surviving, 2024 is about reviving, and in 2025—we thrive.” Luma Partners wrote in the report.

Read more here.—RB

The wait may finally be over.

Paramount Global and production company Skydance Media finally agreed to a deal to merge on Sunday, ending monthslong speculation on the future of Paramount, which is home to Paramount Studios, streaming service Paramount+ and major entertainment brands like CBS, MTV, and Nickelodeon.

As part of the deal, Skydance will acquire National Amusements, the company that is owned by Shari Redstone and controls a majority of Paramount’s voting stock, for $2.4 billion in cash, before merging with Paramount by offering Paramount shareholders $4.5 billion in stock and cash and providing an additional $1.5 billion in primary capital to the company’s balance sheet. There is a chance that the deal may not go through: The merger is subject to regulatory approval and includes a 45-day window in which Paramount’s board can entertain competing offers from other suitors.

If the transaction is finalized, though, Skydance founder and CEO David Ellison will become chairman and CEO of Paramount, and Jeff Shell, a former NBCU exec who exited the company in 2023 following an investigation into a sexual harassment complaint against him and who is currently chairman of RedBird Sports and Media, will become president.

“The key thesis behind this transaction is our desire to inject Skydance as a pure-play content company, to double down on Paramount’s prowess as one of the world-class storytelling enterprises, and also ensure that the company is positioned to be able to expand into a tech hybrid…to meet the demands and needs of the evolving marketplace,” Ellison said during a Monday call with investors.

Read more here.—JS

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