Affiliate Window Acquires Buy.at – Network Consolidation at Last

Well, last week was certainly a week of mergers, be it the Orange and T-Mobile merger that’s been recently approved by the European regulators or closer to home and our hearts at Azam, Affiliate Window acquiring Buy.at.

‘T-Orange’ or ‘Orange-T’ (or whatever you prefer to call the merger between the mobile giants!) will have a combined customer base of almost 30 million making it the largest operator in the UK, closely followed by O2 with 21 million customers. They say the merger is going to “improve mobile internet”, giving us a faster browsing experience.

Soon after this news was announced came rumours that Vodafone may be looking to join ventures with the 3 network, especially as they’ve already done so in Australia. There’s also been talk that 3 oppose the T-Mobile/Orange merger, saying that it raises key competition issues as it reduces the mobile broadband providers from five to four. Which leaves us thinking: Doesn’t less competition put the retailer in a better position?

As for the ‘Affiliate.at’ or ‘Buy Window’ merger, there’s been talk for years about the consolidation of the UK affiliate networks, and finally something really big has happened. So far, the industry reaction has been positive and at Azam we think it’s going to be an interesting few months as two of the biggest UK networks start working together.

While Affiliate Window‘s recent partnership with Zanox has taken them into the European arena, the merger with Buy.at certainly makes it apparent that the U.S. is where they want to succeed next.

Whether the new merger will prove detrimental to the other UK affiliate networks out there remains to be seen, but I’m pretty sure it’s given them food for thought.

For us at Azam, it will give us one less network to look at when running comparisons and I’m sure it’s the same for affiliates too.

Whatever these mergers bring, it’s certainly an exciting move and we’ll certainly be keeping a very close eye on how things develop.

What are your thoughts on the mergers and acquisitions? Leave a comment below!