Oracle is buying domain services provider Dyn. While Oracle didn’t reveal the sale price in its release, former Forbes columnist Dan Primack pegged it at just north of $600 million.
Dyn made waves in recent months after it was hit by a massive DDOS attack, which temporarily shut down major websites including Spotify and Twitter – and disrupted ad delivery.
But Dyn has also been pushing its ability to provide faster connections between demand-side platforms and publishers, which enables publishers to accept more bids and increase revenue.
Scott Brazina, Dyn’s VP of media, said this acquisition was “very good news” for his division’s clients and prospects. While Brazina couldn’t provide extensive detail, he said Dyn has a large media and marketing tech client base, which he added is an important strategic growth area for Oracle.
If Oracle capitalizes on Dyn’s media discipline, it would create a new dimension for Oracle’s ad tech capabilities – which the company slowly developed with the acquisitions of BlueKai, Datalogix, Crosswise and AddThis. Of course, those technologies focus on making data and identity connections – not on improving the speed of bids and ad delivery.
But while Dyn Chief Strategy Officer Kyle York noted in the release Dyn’s ability to improve website revenue, Oracle pegged Dyn as an improvement to its cloud-based infrastructure and platform businesses – not its marketing stack.
Meanwhile, Oracle’s marketing cloud chief, Laura Ipsen, stated she wants to use marketing and ad tech to drive more value for its bigger lines of business, like supply chain and ERP.
So it remains to be seen the extent to which Oracle will continue to nurture Dyn’s burgeoning media business. Another question: Does Dyn still need media revenue now that it can access Oracle’s tremendous war chest?
Ultimately, it’s too early to state definitively what, if anything, Oracle will do with Dyn’s media business. As is its wont, Oracle is “reviewing the existing Dyn product road map.” Oracle said in an FAQ circulated to clients that it is “committed to protecting and enhancing customer investments in Dyn solutions,” and that Dyn customers will see better integration with Oracle products.
Oracle didn’t respond to requests for comment.
