Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
Tapping Bankers
Not to be outdone by the plans of competitor Rubicon Project, sell-side platform PubMatic is now taking its IPO aspirations to the next step, says The Wall Street Journal. The WSJ’s Telis Demos writes, “The company is working with Credit Suisse Group AG and Citigroup Inc. on the offering, which could come later this year, the people said. It will aim for a price that values the company at more than $1 billion, they added.” Read more (subscription).
Google wants to get brands on board with programmatic and is working with certain companies on “custom brand exchanges.” The idea is the same as a publisher exchange, but in this case Google would gather up a number of brands then match them to certain publishers. “We’re trying to create effectively a curated network for these advertisers using the best inventory these publishers have to offer,” Aaron McNally, market development manager at Google’s DoubleClick Ad Exchange, told Ad Age. Read more.
Visualizing The Datasets
In the Columbia Journalism Review, Ryan Chittum takes mainstream-ish media charts to task for purporting to show the decline of The New York Times Co.’s business. Chittum explains, “The Times has very real problems, thank you very much, but they’re not this bad. This is a good example of a chart that’s technically accurate, but really misleading, and a warning about using datasets out of context.” Read and see it. And, read more from AdExchanger about the NYT’s ad year ahead.
Buying Video Tech
The acquisition of contextual video advertising technology firm SET Media, formerly Affine Systems, has been completed as of Thursday by Conversant (AdExchanger article), formerly ValueClick Media, according to a release. The acquisition’s value is $31 million claims Crunchbase. Read the release. SET CEO, and former YuMe CEO, Michael Mathieu will join Conversant’s executive team. Four years ago, Affine Systems tech was supplied to companies like AOL’s video ad marketplace Adap.tv.
The Scarlet Paragraph
Search Engine Land spies a new disclaimer Google had to apply to its search home page for users in France for, apparently, a couple of days. Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan tells the story: “The home page of Google France now carries a notification to users that Google was fined for privacy violations relating to the ‘unified’ privacy policy change it made in 2012.” He adds, “A required link to the ruling against it might also be slowing the site of the French privacy agency.” See a screenshot.
Consumers And Services
In a post on his personal blog, Sovrn’s (was Federated Media and Lijit) executive chairman, John Battelle, reviews Rubicon Project’s “independent” market positioning – not Google – from its S-1. He admits he has skin in the game with his own firm and says, “Over time, we won’t be talking about ‘publishers’ and ‘advertisers,’ we’ll be talking about ‘consumers’ and ‘services.’ And the infrastructure that connects those two parties should not be a default – it should be driven by competition between independent players.” Read more. And read a Forbes article on the transformation of Battelle’s company here.
But Wait. There’s More!
- Professor’s Blinkx Research That Caused Share Slump Was ‘Paid For By Investors’
- SOLOMO Technology Launches SOLOMO Exchange – press release
- Rodale Hires Beth Buehler As SVP, Digital Operations And Strategy – Adweek
- 5 Marketplaces For Buying, Selling And Sharing With Neighbors – Street Fight
- Facing Criticism, AOL Chief Reverses Change To 401(k) Plan – The New York Times
- Quora Likely To Add Ads – The NY Times Bits Blog
