Investment

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. […]