Tower Partners Advises TBAR Partners on Sale to Common Thread Collective Transaction Marks Latest TikTok Shop Deal for Tower Partners’ Rapidly Growing Digital Marketing Practice
Columbia, MD – (10/5/26) Tower Partners, a leading private investment banking and advisory firm focused on the lower middle-market, served as the exclusive sell-side advisor to TBAR Partners in its acquisition by Common Thread Collective (CTC), a leading growth agency for direct-to-consumer e-commerce brands backed by The Acacia Group.
Founded by college entrepreneurs Alex Rudolph and Tyler Brechbiel, TBAR Partners has rapidly established itself as a leading TikTok Shop agency, helping e-commerce brands grow through creator content, TikTok Shop management, affiliate marketing and performance advertising. The company has scaled more than 40 brands and manages more than $5 million in monthly gross merchandise value, according to the acquisition announcement.
Tower Partners advised TBAR throughout the transaction, helping the founders evaluate their strategic alternatives, navigate the sale process and identify a partner capable of providing the infrastructure and resources needed to support the company's next stage of growth.
“Alex and Tyler built an impressive business in a remarkably short period of time, and they had created significant value by developing deep expertise in one of the fastest-growing areas of e-commerce,” said Erv Terwilliger, CEO of Tower Partners. “Our role was to help them understand their options and find a partner that could provide the resources and platform to accelerate what they had already built while allowing them to remain focused on their expertise in TikTok Shop.”
The transaction brings TBAR's TikTok Shop expertise and creator network together with CTC's data, financial planning, creative strategy and performance marketing capabilities. Joining CTC provides TBAR with additional infrastructure, resources and client relationships while allowing them to continue focusing on TikTok Shop. For CTC, the acquisition expands its ability to provide its e-commerce clients with a systemized approach to TikTok Shop and creator-led commerce.
“TBAR was built around a very specific area of expertise, and we knew we needed the right partner to help us take that expertise to the next level,” said Alex Rudolph, co-founder of TBAR Partners. “Tower Partners helped us navigate the process and find a partner that understood both the opportunity and what we wanted to build.”
The TBAR transaction is the latest milestone in the rapidly growing Digital Marketing Practice at Tower Partners, which launched earlier this year to serve the increasing number of entrepreneurs and strategic buyers active in the digital marketing, social commerce, and technology-enabled services sectors. Most recently, Tower advised on the sale of Social Commerce Club to Podean.
“Digital marketing continues to be an exceptionally dynamic sector, with entrepreneurs building highly valuable businesses around new technologies, platforms, and ways of reaching consumers,” said Terwilliger. “We see significant opportunity to help founders and business owners in this space understand their strategic alternatives and maximize the value they've created.”
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
About Tower Partners
Founded in 2008, Tower Partners is a premier national investment bank servicing the lower middle market. The team at Tower Partners has completed engagements with more than $30 billion in transaction value. Tower Partners specialize in providing Wall Street level investment banking to Main Street, with a focus on family, founder, and entrepreneurial-led businesses. Tower Partners has established itself as the go-to advisor for middle-market clients seeking high-quality execution and strategic advisory. The firm is headquartered in Columbia, MD with offices in New York, NY, and Greenwich, Connecticut, and partners in Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Texas and Oklahoma.
