Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
Is This Innovid-ive?
Video ad company Innovid bought Argentinean display company Herolens for $30 million, after raising $30 million in January. “Display is a bad business,” Innovid CEO Zvika Netter told The Wall Street Journal. Huh? Well, Innovid needs a display ad business to make it a well-rounded tech company in the sector, especially as marketers move to full-stack solutions as alternatives to Google and Amazon. Innovid could also use display data to inform some of its TV advertising. Read more. In other acquisition news, Nielsen bought a minority stake in brand-safety firm OpenSlate.
New In The News
As ad-supported publishers seek to diversify revenue, they’re building out subscription lines and commerce networks. To pull that off, news companies “need to master the kind of growth-marketing chops that’s common at fast-growing direct-to-consumer brands that depended on customer acquisition, particularly through Facebook, Instagram and Google ads,” Digiday reports. It’s hard for cash-strapped news publishers to compete with tech companies or startup equity offers for top execs. “I think a few years ago everybody had to go to the agencies because that’s where the talent was,” said Marie Gallic, a director at the recruiting firm Grace Blue. “But now they’ve begun poaching from each other.” More.
Flying On Automattic
Automattic, parent company of the WordPress publishing platform, restocked its arsenal with a $300 million investment from Salesforce Ventures. Since last year, Automattic has been on a buying spree of ecommerce tech and fellow web-publishing platforms. Last month it bought Tumblr and the ecommerce tech startup ZBS CRM, popular with small merchants and WordPress publishers. It also acquired Atavist and Prospress, which operates the WooCommerce product suite. The investment puts Automattic’s valuation at more than $3 billion, Axios reports. More.
But Wait, There’s More
- Reddit COO On How The Platform Is Doubling Ad Revenue – Ad Age
- Grocery Chains Pilot In-Store Digital Network From News America – MediaPost
- Teads Opens Platform So Publishers Can Sell Ads Themselves – release
- This Article Is Spying On You – NYT
- INN Nonprofit News Media Index 2019 – release
- Five Privacy-Focused Mapping Examples – Street Fight Mag
- Criteo Expands Integration With LiveRamp’s IdentityLink – release
- Roku: The New Generation Of Cord Cutters – report
- AT&T Is Not Considering A Sale Of DirecTV, Sources Say – CNBC
- Facebook’s App Factory Aims For Teens With Two New Apps – The Information
You’re Hired
