T-Mobile <3s Ad Tech
After spending billions to launch advertising businesses, most telcos eventually lost their taste for ad tech.
But not T-Mobile.
Multiple sources tell Digiday that T-Mobile has been seriously kicking the tires on Blis, a provider of location-based advertising and analytics solutions. An announcement is expected as soon as this week at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona.
According to one source, the deal would value Blis, which was founded in 2004 and raised $34 million, at roughly $200 million.
Blis has reportedly been actively exploring its exit options, including with PE firms and potential strategic acquirers. But T-Mobile is said to have won out.
T-Mobile makes sense as a home for Blis. It’s been a strategic acquirer of ad tech, while other telcos have run away from the sector like it’s on fire.
In 2019, T-Mobile bought PushSpring, an ad tech company specializing in mobile ads and push notifications, followed in 2022 with its acquisition of Octopus Interactive, a rideshare-focused ad startup. And in January, T-Mobile purchased OOH supply-side platform Vistar Media for roughly $600 million in cash.
Unsurprisingly, T-Mobile and Blis did not respond to Digiday’s requests for comment.
Seriously, Report It
Some Google ad accounts were surprised to discover that, due to an unexplained glitch, none of their ads had been served over the weekend, from March 1 through March 3.
“In the last few weeks, we have seen wild inaccuracies and results across the board and have more client complaints than we have ever had before,” Andrew Higman, founder and CEO of Adsquire, an ad agency for legal firms, tells Adweek. (Higman also recently flagged an issue where he observed Google triple serving ads from a single advertiser on one search results page.)
The revenue hit for the aforementioned glitch is isolated to a relatively few accounts. Also, the stakes are low, since advertisers didn’t lose any money directly – only the opportunity to serve ads to acquire new customers.
By comparison, previous Google and Meta platform bugs caused tens or hundreds of millions in misspent budgets.
There remains an important takeaway, though, which is that Google has still not shared an explanation for the bug. Google and Meta have adopted a practice of refunding accounts after platform glitches without detailing what went wrong.
Any advertiser that receives ad credit refunds from Google or Meta with no explanation should report their experience to the Better Business Bureau.
My AI Brings All The Boys To The Yard
Ad tech OGs are getting back in the business. Many took some years off or purportedly hung up their hats for good.
But the generative AI chatbot revolution has some former top ad industry salesmen licking their chops.
The latest example is Firsthand, an agentic AI tech startup co-founded and co-led by Jonathan Heller (founder and former CEO of FreeWheel) and Michael Rubenstein (former AppNexus president). The duo also worked at DoubleClick together.
This week, Firsthand raised a $26 million Series A round, Axios reports, with participation from ad tech angel fund Aperiam Ventures, as well as individually from Brian O’Kelley (former AppNexus CEO), David Rosenblatt (former DoubleClick CEO) and Bob Lord (former AOL President).
Meanwhile, in November, a trio of veterans from the Trade Desk – Brian Stempeck, Ed Chater and Poul Costinsky – launched Evertune AI, a marketing analytics solution for generative AI search results. They were backed by a coterie of current and former TTD execs.
But Wait! There’s More
How Amazon’s VP of video ads is pitching Prime Video as he fends off competition from Netflix. [Business Insider]
Plus, Amazon Ads updated its DSP so TV buyers can manage all their budgets – including linear – from its interface. [Adweek]
The diabolical world of phone scams. [Maclean’s Magazine]
According to an SEC filing, CTV ad platform MNTN – which recently filed its S-1 to go public – is selling Maximum Effort, the creative agency co-founded by Ryan Reynolds. [Adweek]
You’re Hired
Podcast ad platform Libsyn appoints Christopher Avello as VP of marketing. [release]
AccuWeather names Diana Hummel as SVP of ad sales and media partnerships. [TVNewsCheck]
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