Ad Networks

Apple TV is losing its plus; Agentic AI is ruining the ad tech equilibrium; and Google insists that search is still solid.

Since 2020, brands have made commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in their ad campaigns and spending. In response, a number of ad networks have cropped up that specialize in connecting advertisers to diverse audiences via partnerships with minority-owned and minority-led publishers. My Code Founder and CEO Parker Morse believes the rise of multicultural ad networks over the past two years is great news for the advertising industry and for efforts to monetize minority-led publishers’ media inventory.

Kinesso, IPG’s marketing intelligence brand, has developed nine APIs for its Kanvas Developer Toolset, the agency announced Thursday. The APIs offered through Kanvas unify the various software tools used to manage advertising campaigns. For example, an advertiser using the Trade Desk and IPG-owned Acxiom would be able to see insights from Acxiom audiences from within […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Court Date Dun, dun! Cue the “Law & Order” sound effect because the IAB Tech Lab is being taken to court in Germany by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) over what the advocacy group considers an ongoing breach of personal privacy by […]

Ad tech companies floundering in the public markets have increasingly turned to private equity firms to reinvent their businesses away from the glare of Wall Street’s harsh spotlight. Some PE firms buy ad tech to wring out costs before putting them back on the market or selling to another PE house. Others, like Sizmek, which […]

Digital marketing platform Valassis acquired ad network MaxPoint for $95 million, the companies said Tuesday. Read the release. Valassis itself was acquired by private equity firm Harland Clarke Holdings in 2013, and it will take the public company MaxPoint private. “The acquisition of MaxPoint … will create greater strength in managing integrated media delivery campaigns […]

Faithful followers of Rocket Fuel’s saga will recall that the company hoped to get cash-flow positive in 2016 and return to growth sometime in 2017. While CEO Randy Wootton declined to tell AdExchanger when exactly he expected that to happen, Rocket Fuel is banking on three things to bring it back: growth in its platform […]

Can Rocket Fuel return to growth following 2016, which was characterized as a “transitional year” by CFO Stephen Snyder during the company’s Q4 and FY 2016 earnings call Tuesday? Read the release. Rocket Fuel’s nascent platform solutions business has expanded nicely in recent quarters and helped the company end Q4 on a decent note. Its […]

Xaxis, WPP’s programmatic media company, is a bit of lightning rod in the advertising industry for a few well-documented reasons. However, it’s undeniable that the ad net/trading desk/tech shop combo invests a lot into its own data, partnerships and technologies. Consider, for instance, the $25 million it put into its proprietary data management platform Turbine […]

Facebook on Thursday formally unveiled Canvas, its new full-screen mobile ad unit that offers creatives the real estate they’ve been craving in the news feed. But the richer mobile ads will not be constrained for long to what the company internally refers to as the “big blue app.” At a Facebook press event Thursday, execs […]

Ad tech might not be as sexy a buy as it was just a few short years ago, but that didn’t stop Israeli performance advertising company Perion from buying American ad net Undertone on Tuesday for up to $180 million in cash. Of that sum, $91 million is payable at closing and the remaining $89 […]

Rocket Fuel turned in a better than expected second quarter, bolstered by enterprise sales of its DMP/DSP products, deal-making with holding companies, and cost savings from layoffs earlier this year. The successes helped the programmatic ad network and ad tech company post a 30% rise in gross revenue to $120 million and achieve “positive adjusted […]

When Rocket Fuel’s interim CEO, Monte Zweben, took to the company’s first-quarter earnings call Wednesday, he was representing a significantly different company from the one that delivered lousy news to Wall Street three short months ago. “We are a new Rocket Fuel,” Zweben said. That newness manifests not only in the company’s cost controls, including […]

As it grapples for profitability, ad net/programmatic media platform Rocket Fuel has initiated layoffs as part of what it called “a new efficiency program that is expected to reduce the publicly traded company’s operating costs by $30 million annually.” Read the release. The move comes just one month after co-founder George John stepped down as […]

George John, co-founder of ad network/programmatic media platform Rocket Fuel, has vacated his CEO position. Board member Monte Zweben will temporarily step into his place as the company searches for John’s successor. Read the release. “The company’s evolution over the last couple of years put it in a different operating regime, which requires a different type […]

Outdoor lifestyle brands have plenty of room to grow their digital sales, but many hold back for fear of cannibalizing brick-and-mortar distribution, according to ad tech veteran Tyler Moebius. Moebius hopes to help these marketers – companies like SmartWool and POC – overcome that paradox with FASTG8 (“fast gate”), his data-driven marketing company based in Carbondale, […]

Is the old ad network model truly dead? When Apple’s ad platform iAd went programmatic, some executives hinted it might be time to start shoveling dirt onto its carcass. “If there weren’t enough nails in the old ad network model, having Apple make the switch to programmatic is one more,” said Michael Collins, CEO of […]

Why would former MediaMath Chief Strategy Officer Eoin Townsend join Collective, a company that built its reputation as an old-school ad network? On the surface, the move seems counterintuitive: a guy working for a provider of self-serve ad technology jumping to a company that made its rep performing media-buying services. Since mid-September, Townsend has operated as Collective’s […]

It’s been six months since Facebook unveiled a new mobile-centric ad network offering at its F8 developer conference. The message then and over the summer was clear: We’ll take our time ramping up the new Facebook Audience Network, from both a supply and demand standpoint. But as of Tuesday, Facebook said it’s ready to demonstrate the firepower of […]

Rocket Fuel intends to release a free anti-fraud product in June called Bot Or Not – available to advertisers regardless of whether they’re clients. (Update 5/27: The company has settled on the name Botfinder.) CTO Mark Torrance announced the product’s existence at the Rocket Fuel Summit in New York City on Tuesday and shined a little light into […]

Rocket Fuel, one of a growing pack of public ad tech companies, reported 95% growth in revenues and 107% margin acceleration during the first quarter. But it wasn’t enough for Wall Street, which punished the company’s stock after hours – perhaps in light of decelerating top-line revenues. Rocket Fuel’s active customers more than doubled year over year to 1,251, and the […]

Since going public in Q4 2013, Criteo has had an easier time signing new advertisers – especially in Europe, where the business environment is more cautious overall and advertisers carefully examine credentials when making vendor selections. In the first quarter of this year, the French ad tech company’s business wins in the EMEA region included […]

Rocket Fuel’s stock closed at $31.04 Friday, near its lowest point since the ad tech company went public six months ago. The sell-off comes after a group of more than seven investors and senior executives cashed out to the tune of more than $150 million, as reported by InsiderTradingWire. Those transactions, which earned more than $14 […]

Israel-based performance network Matomy has scrapped plans to raise about $100 million in a London Stock Exchange public offering that would have valued the company at around $400 million. The withdrawal was motivated in part by a “technicality” of London IPOs that requires at least a quarter of shares to be claimed by investors in the […]

Israel-based performance network Matomy on Monday signaled its intent to go public in a letter filed with the London Stock Exchange. As we noted earlier, the company aims to raise $100 million at a valuation of around $400 million. The filing also revealed Matomy has 388 employees, and more than 1,500 clients. Matomy’s business is […]

The conventional wisdom on ad tech margins is that lucrative markups naturally compress over time due to a variety of factors, including competition for media impressions, which drives up the cost of impressions. But some companies, most notably Rocket Fuel, seem to have defied that logic. The programmatic ad platform, which went public last fall, […]

Hundreds of mobile ad networks are working on a transition to programmatic trading. One of them is Orange Advertising, a unit of European wireless carrier Orange. Last year, the company realized it needed an answer to the impression-buying trend, and began evaluating ad tech partners to support a nascent trading desk. It ultimately settled on […]

In its Q4 earnings call Wednesday, mobile ad network Millennial Media revealed it had netted $109.5 million in the fourth quarter, up from $75.9 million in Q4 2012 (a 44% increase). Total revenue for 2013 increased 41.6% from $241.3 million in 2012 to $341.8 million last year. Despite a strong end to the year, however, […]

Following a rough year, Conversant – the ad-tech company formerly known as ad network ValueClick – had what CEO John Giuliani described in the company’s quarterly call as a “solid Q4 to close out the year.” Read the release. The company on Tuesday announced 2013 Q4 revenue of $176.4 million, a 6% increase from the same period […]

ValueClick’s gradual transformation from an ad network 15 years ago to an ad-tech provider  – focused on ad personalization and decisioning – entered a new phase Monday when it rebranded as Conversant. The name, said CEO John Giuliani, represents the consolidation of the different technological components the company has assembled over the last several years. […]