OTT giant Roku will acquire the demand-side platform (DSP) dataxu for $150 million, the companies said Tuesday.
The deal, which is a mix of cash and stock, will strengthen Roku’s self-serve ad buying capabilities, the company said in a press release. Roku has 30.5 million active accounts on its platform and a growing programmatic advertising business. The deal was overseen by investment bank GCA advisors.
“TV advertising is shifting toward OTT and a data-driven model focused on business outcomes for brands,” said Roku CEO Anthony Wood in a statement. “The acquisition of dataxu will accelerate our ad platform while also helping our content partners monetize their inventory even more effectively.”
The deal takes one of the remaining independent DSPs off the market.
Dataxu, which launched as a pure-play DSP in 2009, began pivoting its business to OTT last year with the launch of its TotalTV Marketplace, through which it inked supply relationships with major TV broadcasters like Viacom and Sky TV. Dataxu was also one of the first DSPs, along with The Trade Desk, to hook into Amazon Fire’s private marketplace in July.
By 2019, TV impressions drove the majority of revenue at dataxu, CEO Mike Baker told AdExchanger in a previous interview.
“We think if you can be a value-add on both sides of the exchange in advanced TV, that’s going to be a lucrative position,” he said.
For more about Roku’s dataxu acquisition, read AdExchanger’s coverage here.
