This Week in M&A Issue #220
January 19, 2026
Top of the mornin’ to ya! 🍀
Today’s trend of the week is “DIY kits”.
Remember the good ol’ days when you received Christmas gifts that you could play with for hours? This past Christmas, that nostalgia came roaring back as DIY and hobby kits surged in popularity.
According to Shopify data shared with Retail Brew, sales of items like candle-making kits jumped (121%), followed by science and exploration sets (120%), bocce ball sets (111%), beading and jewelry-making kits (73%), and paint-by-number kits (54%).
The great thing about these kits is that they appeal to both kids and adults, giving you a wide audience to reach. Ecommerce owners can launch their own kits or curate trending sets to drive seasonal sales. Bloggers can craft “top DIY gifts” lists or step-by-step tutorials with affiliate links. YouTubers can create unboxing videos, how-tos, or challenge content that showcases projects coming to life.
By offering ways for your audience to get hands-on and creative, through products, tutorials, or inspiration, you can tap into this booming trend while building an engaged, loyal community.
Today we have for you:
- Google Trends gets smarter with Gemini AI
-
Claude Cowork turns AI into a hands-on desktop assistant
And:
- How Amazon KDP authors can profit from the audiobook boom
- Acquisition entrepreneurship for digital businesses
- Google’s advertising systems experienced a major technical issue
Alright, let’s dive in.
Image Source: Giphy
Google Trends Rolls Out AI-Powered Search Term Suggestions
Google has rolled out a major update to Google Trends, integrating Gemini AI directly into the Trends Explorer to help users discover and compare search trends more easily. The new feature was launched on January 14, 2026, and is aimed at marketers and researchers who rely on trend data for content and market analysis.
The biggest change is a new Gemini-powered side panel that takes the guesswork out of keyword discovery. Users can enter a topic or even a natural language description, then click the “Suggest search terms” button. Gemini automatically generates up to eight related search terms and plots them on the Trends graph for instant comparison. What used to take multiple searches and manual tweaks now happens with just the click of a button.
In a Google blog post, the company demonstrated the feature using trending dog breeds. Searching for trending dog breeds prompts Gemini to populate the chart with breeds like golden retriever and beagle, while also suggesting broader angles such as hypoallergenic dog breeds or large dog breeds. Users can edit terms, apply filters for country and time range, and continue refining their analysis as before.
This automation solves a common pain point with Google Trends. In the past, finding the right related terms often meant trial and error, especially for newer users. Gemini now handles that discovery step, freeing users to focus on what the data actually means.
The Explorer page has also received a visual refresh. Each search term now has a dedicated color and icon, making overlapping trend lines easier to read. Google has doubled the number of rising queries shown on each timeline and increased the total number of terms users can compare, though exact limits were not disclosed.
The update begins rolling out on desktop this week.
The Opportunity podcast
![Acquisition Entrepreneurship for Digital Businesses With Alexander Kelm [Ep.201] (1)](https://1745913.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/1745913/Acquisition%20Entrepreneurship%20for%20Digital%20Businesses%20With%20Alexander%20Kelm%20%5BEp.201%5D%20(1).png)
From Buyer to Builder: Scaling Through Digital Business Acquisitions
Starting a business isn’t the only way to become an entrepreneur. Buying a business is often faster, less risky, and more scalable than starting one from scratch. But why stop at just one acquisition?
In this episode, we’re joined by Alexander Kelm, an acquisition entrepreneur and founder of a micro private equity firm focused on buying, growing, and scaling digital businesses across Europe.
Alexander breaks down what acquisition entrepreneurship actually looks like in practice, from finding the right deals to growing businesses after the acquisition.
We cover:
• How to get started as a first-time buyer
• The biggest mistakes new acquirers make
• How Alexander sources and vets acquisition opportunities
• The real-world challenges of buying and operating businesses in the EU
If you’re an online business owner curious about acquisitions, micro private equity, or building a portfolio instead of starting from zero, this is an episode you don’t want to miss.
Ai
Claude Cowork Turns AI into a Hands-On Assistant for Everyday Work
From inboxes to spreadsheets, AI is stepping in as a personal assistant for professionals everywhere.
Anthropic has launched Claude Cowork, a user-friendly version of its AI coding tool designed for professionals without technical expertise. Unlike Claude Code, which helps developers write, edit, and debug code, Cowork allows anyone to automate complex tasks using simple natural language prompts.
Claude Cowork turns the AI into an active collaborator across a user’s desktop. With permission, it can read files, organize folders, draft documents, and complete multistep tasks without constant input. Users access Cowork through the Claude Max plan, which costs $100 to $200 per month, via the Claude Desktop app on macOS. By granting access to specific folders, users let the AI read, edit, create, and organize files autonomously.
The AI can handle a wide range of tasks. It can sort downloads, analyze data, generate reports, and create charts or PowerPoint presentations. For example, Cowork can compile an expense report from photos of receipts. Users can supervise or guide the AI as needed. It also integrates with tools like Notion and Asana and, combined with Claude’s browser capabilities, can perform web-based tasks such as navigating pages, filling out forms, or clicking buttons.
What makes Cowork truly remarkable is not just what it can do, but how it was created. Anthropic says that much of Cowork was actually built by Claude Code itself, meaning the AI played a central role in designing and developing the tool it powers.
For online business owners, Claude Cowork can save hours of tedious work, turning data, documents, and tasks into effortless productivity so they can focus on growing their business.
Read All About It!
🎯 Free website rank checker: monitor keywords, performance, & opportunities
🔥 Top trending topics for January 2026: hottest searches in the US
âś… How to perform a complete SEO audit: in just 17 steps
đź’Ľ Turn your expertise into a $1M/year business: using live cohort-based programs
Amazon KDP & Audible
The Audiobook Market Is Exploding and KDP Authors Can Cash In
The audiobook market is exploding, offering Audible and KDP publishers a good opportunity to cash in.
In 2024, global audiobook sales hit $2.2 billion, with the U.S. market alone generating $1.1 billion, a 23.8% increase over the previous year. Digital audio now holds 11.3% of the U.S. trade market, surpassing ebooks, which make up just 10% of sales. Meanwhile, print book sales are slowing, down 1% in the first 11 months of 2025.
More than half of U.S. adults have listened to an audiobook, and market forecasts predict a 25.7% annual growth rate through 2032. Some audio versions of bestsellers now outperform their print counterparts.
The “audio-first” approach, publishing audiobooks before print editions, is gaining traction. Traditionally, publishers acquired all rights to a book, including print, ebook, and audio. Today, Amazon KDP authors can self-publish ebooks while licensing print and audiobook rights separately. This flexibility lets authors control multiple revenue streams and even attract traditional publishers after proving success in audio, particularly for series.
For Audible and KDP publishers, audio is a growth engine that can’t be ignored. If your book performs well in audio, it can open doors to print deals, increased visibility, and new audiences. With listener demand surging and platforms like Spotify expanding, now is the perfect time to explore audiobook production.
Google Ads
Google Ad Outages Trigger Massive Revenue Losses for Publishers
Google’s advertising systems suffered major technical failures on January 13 and 14, triggering sudden revenue drops of 50 to 90% for publishers around the world. The disruptions hit both Google Ad Manager and AdSense at the same time, raising concerns about how dependent publishers have become on Google’s infrastructure.
According to Google’s Ads Status Dashboard, Ad Manager began experiencing issues on January 13 when the platform failed to properly recognize third-party ad tags. Users saw error messages, slow performance, and problems saving ad creatives. A second incident followed the next day, with similar behavior. While Google said ads could still be saved, publishers reported serious delivery problems behind the scenes.
The most damaging issue was described by Google as a systemic decline in Ad Exchange match rates and delivery. This mainly affected Google-owned demand sources such as Google Ads and Display and Video 360, particularly for web and mobile web display ads. As a result, many ad requests were not matched with bids, sharply reducing earnings.
Publishers using AdSense reported parallel revenue collapses. Forum posts and Reddit discussions documented dramatic eCPM and RPM drops despite stable traffic. Some European publishers saw earnings fall by as much as 90% overnight. Others reported strange reporting behavior, coverage declines, lower click-through rates, and ad serving errors, even though ads continued to appear on their sites.
The impact was global. Publishers in Europe, Asia, and the United States all reported similar patterns, with January 14 emerging as the worst day. Several long-time AdSense users said they had never experienced declines of this magnitude, even during typical seasonal slowdowns.
While some publishers reported early signs of recovery, the outage has highlighted a stark reality. Heavy reliance on a single dominant ad platform leaves publishers highly vulnerable when technical failures occur, even briefly.
At the time of writing (January 16), the service disruption is still ongoing, with Google continuing to investigate.
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