Growth Catalyst Partners (GCP), a mid-market private equity a private investment firm, and PSP Capital, backed by former US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, have acquired a majority stake in mobile video ad platform Beachfront Media. The companies declined to disclose the deal terms. As a result of the transaction, Beachfront co-founder and CEO Frank […]
Video platform Connatix raised $15 million in growth equity from Volition Capital on Tuesday. The company had previously raised an undisclosed seed round, and it claims it is profitable. Connatix will use the funding for product development, to beef up sales and marketing and to fuel US expansion. After it penetrates the US market, Connatix […]
Cross-screen startup VideoAmp said Thursday it has raised a $21.4 million Series B growth round led by Mediaocean, with support from existing investors, including the German broadcast giant RTL Group. Mediaocean CEO Bill Wise will join VideoAmp’s board of directors. VideoAmp has raised $36.6 million in total and will use the growth financing to hire […]
Sizmek said Tuesday it intends to buy ad tech company Rocket Fuel for $2.60 per share in cash, valuing Rocket Fuel at $145 million. That’s a long way from where Rocket Fuel was valued when it IPOed in 2013 – going public at $29 per share at a roughly $1 billion value. Read the release. […]
San Francisco-based startup NovoRoll is doubling down on mobile and outstream video with a $2.5 million injection of growth capital from Silicon Valley Bank. The company, which helps publishers monetize outstream and native video, had previously raised a $700,000 seed round. It will use its new financing to grow its engineering resources and global footprint […]
You gotta give credit to MediaMath. At least, Goldman Sachs did. MediaMath said Tuesday that it had received a $175 million credit facility led by the finance giant. Santander Bank also partnered. CFO Stacey Bain said MediaMath’s previous debt facility was coming due, and the company will use its new line of credit to refinance […]
PebblePost on Tuesday announced a $15 million Series B funding round to expand its programmatic direct mail offering. RRE Ventures joins as the startup’s lead investor. PebblePost takes in CRM data and tags a brand’s website, matching visitors to home addresses in its own database and against third-party onboarders. Seventy percent of site traffic can […]
Ascential plc, which owns the Cannes Lions advertising festival, revealed Tuesdsay that it has agreed to acquire MediaLink. The acquisition price depends on MediaLink’s performance from 2017 through 2019, and is capped at $207 million, though the companies expect the final consideration will be closer to $121 million. Read the release. MediaLink’s unaudited revenue in […]
Despite predictions that winter is coming to ad tech, deal activity for the ad tech, mar tech and digital media sectors was tentatively healthy in 2016, according to reports released this week by investment banks LUMA Partners, JEGI and Petsky Prunier. Deal activity rose to the $100-to-$200 billion range. JEGI reported deal activity at roughly […]
Ad tech mergers and acquisitions (M&A) has been a roller coaster in recent years, and 2016 certainly didn’t let up. In 2015, public and private marketplace sentiment cooled, but 2016 saw a resurgence – albeit a much more cautious one than in years past. “Good businesses in ad tech will find owners,” said Tolman Geffs, […]
Tolman Geffs of global investment bank Jordan, Edmiston Group, along with Bill Wise, the CEO of Mediaocean, will speak about the “private equity path” at Industry Preview on Jan. 19 in New York City. What really happens during – and after – a private equity (PE) investment? While the experiences of different companies vary, one thing […]
Twenty-First Century Fox revealed on Friday a preliminary bid to buy out the rest of British pay TV provider and telco Sky for $13.51 per share for a total of about $14.1 billion. Fox already owns a 39.1% stake in the company. In 2010, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. attempted to take over Sky (called British […]
Adobe might have won TubeMogul’s hand in marriage, but there were several other strategic acquirers involved in the courtship. According to a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing dated Nov. 18, TubeMogul’s sales process really began last November. Up until the time Adobe agreed to acquire the DSP in mid-November, 16 entities – including […]
Adobe’s $540 million acquisition of TubeMogul this week was a bet on more automation and addressability in TV. In addition, the deal gives Adobe Marketing Cloud – which is known for its strength in site analytics and creative – the ability to do more cross-screen media execution. TubeMogul has shown consistent growth quarter after quarter, following […]
After an uncharacteristically quaky second quarter that led TubeMogul to lower its guidance amid mobile measurability challenges, market dynamics may be on the upswing. TubeMogul’s total Q3 revenue reached $56.1 million, up 21% year over year, despite a slow ramp-up in mobile video demand due to what the company claimed was a lack of comprehensive […]
Tremor Video’s Q3 revenue was down 1% YoY in Q3 to $41.3 million, a slight improvement over last quarter, when the company’s revenue tumbled 12% YoY. The company is break even in terms of cash flow. When asked about the revenue decreases last quarter, CEO Bill Day told AdExchanger: “We’ve said this since we went […]
Although Neustar’s marketing services division saw 54% Q3 revenue growth YoY to $63.3 million, CEO Lisa Hook noted Thursday that new client wins in its marketing analytics business, MarketShare, had fallen short. As a result, the company lowered MarketShare’s full-year revenue guidance for 2016 from $70 million to $55 million-$60 million. “Our overall results for […]
While Rocket Fuel’s Q3 revenue missed its guidance, CEO Randy Wootton emphasized the company’s continued transition from an ad net into a platform solutions provider. Rocket Fuel’s Q3 non-GAAP revenue of $62.3 million was down 8% compared to last year, while its GAAP revenue of $109.7 million was 2% lower year over year (YoY). Read the release. […]
Youssef Squali will speak at AdExchanger’s PROGRAMMATIC I/O Conference in New York on October 27. All eyes are on The Trade Desk as a much hoped-for bellwether of the revivification of ad tech IPOs. There’s a lot of goodwill coming from all directions, even from competitors. A rising tide will raise all ships. That’s the […]
Forget ecom platform Demandware and data management platform Krux. Investors only want to know why in the world Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has any interest in Twitter. The pounding Salesforce’s stock has taken since Benioff expressed interest certainly reflects their skepticism. So while the little blue bird hasn’t been an explicit presence in this year’s annual […]
French performance marketing company Criteo will acquire HookLogic, a retail exchange, ad server and attribution company focused squarely on retailers. The deal, a $250 million all-cash transaction, gives Criteo a brand new set of customers – including CPG advertisers like Clorox and Kraft. HookLogic’s performance marketing exchange enables these consumer brand manufacturers to bid on sponsored product […]
Private ad tech companies are going public, public ad tech companies are coming off the market, private equity is getting acquisitive – and it’s all part of the natural order and an overdue market correction. Time to put a fork in the now timeworn “ad tech is dead” narrative. “We’ve always been bullish on this space […]
Cross-channel marketing intelligence platform Beckon has raised $10 million in a Series C round led by Venrock and other investors. Beckon had previously raised $23 million over the course of its five-year life span. The company will put the latest injection toward product development and staffing up on sales, marketing and engineering talent. Beckon was […]
Western ad tech companies looking for an exit only have a handful of choices. They can IPO like The Trade Desk (not likely), get acquired like Yahoo (slightly more likely), sell to private equity like Marketo or Mediaocean (only an interim solution) or, as is now becoming the trend, find a Chinese consortium with an […]
The wait is over. Demand-side platform The Trade Desk has dropped its S-1 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, indicating plans to go public. The company hopes to raise $86.3 million in the offering, and management will maintain substantial control of the company. By contrast, Criteo sought $190 million in its IPO, Rocket Fuel […]
Video buy-side platform TubeMogul missed its Q2 revenue forecast by 3%, partly due to slower-than-expected shifts in advertiser spend from desktop to mobile. Revenue in the second quarter reached $55.4 million, a 22% increase from the year before but still shy of analysts’ expectations of about $58 million. The company lowered its FY2016 guidance on […]
Private equity firm Vector Capital has agreed to acquire ad tech company Sizmek. “Vector will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Sizmek common stock for $3.90 per share in an all-cash tender offer,” according to a release, which values the company at $122 million. Notably, Sizmek’s market cap, just prior to the acquisition announcement, […]
Rocket Fuel’s attempt to turn its business from an ad net to a growing software provider continues. The success of that effort may boil down to its chances with three holding companies. The company’s Q2 2016 net revenues fell 7% year over year to $66 million, it reported Tuesday, and GAAP revenue declined 3% YoY. […]
Zype, a startup which seeks to power publishers’ video delivery pipes, has raised $2 million in seed funding following an initial raise of $1.6 million last October. Think of it as a “lightweight” competitor to more legacy cloud video distribution platforms like Ooyala and Brightcove. Zype provides app publishing, monetization and analytics tools and a content […]
Sprinklr, a company that helps large enterprises like McDonald’s and Microsoft manage their social media presences, raised $105 million on Wednesday, valuing the company at about $1.8 billion. Singapore-based investment firm Temasek led the round, which marks Sprinklr’s first major fund-raise from APAC investors. The Series F round brings Sprinklr’s funding total to $239 million. […]
