Platforms

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. FTC You Next Time The FTC had its Facebook antitrust case dismissed, and recently refiled a new suit. The issue is if Facebook’s competition includes YouTube, Snap, Pinterest, TikTok, LinkedIn, Reddit, Twitter, Spotify, Hulu and Netflix, then it’s hardly a monopolized market. The FTC’s […]

Facebook has been selling itself short. A bug in Facebook’s measurement system caused Facebook to undercount app install campaigns on iOS 14 via SKAdNetwork (SKAN) for nearly seven months. The bug, which Facebook identified on August 20, only impacted iPhone 12 users that were using the Facebook app. Instagram users and Audience Network partner apps […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The SPAC Attack Online publishers are popular takeover targets for special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), which promise a route to IPO without the typical pre-IPO roadshow – the well-known brand merges with an already-public shell company. First-party data and ad tech companies have boomed […]

Ad verification and measurement provider DoubleVerify is set to acquire Berlin-based ad tech company Meetrics, a deal that will help fuel the newly minted public company’s global expansion. The all-cash purchase is expected to close in the third quarter of 2021. DoubleVerify CEO Mark Zagorski declined to disclose the sale price. Meetrics was founded in […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Settling For Nothing Apple agreed to a number of App Store updates to resolve a US class-action lawsuit by developers. It’s a measly commitment by Apple, which promises to extend its 15% commission for apps that make less than $1 million for at least […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Publisher Action  Forbes is jumping on the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) bandwagon as a route to go public, CNBC reports. The business publisher announced plans to IPO at a $630 million value. The cash infusion will help Forbes’s “digital transformation,” and CEO Mike […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Vizionary Vizio Ads made big gains during the recent upfronts negotiations, where Roku has been the CTV champion in recent years. Vizio announced in a press release that it locked in more than $100 million for 2022, quadrupling its total from last year (which […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Under Pressure NBCUniversal is turning the screws on Nielsen as the MRC considers stripping its National TV rating. Nielsen has long dominated TV ratings but is under fire for underreporting viewers and missing visibility into streaming, mobile and desktop. The Olympics on NBC underwhelmed […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Second Verse, Same As The First? The Federal Trade Commission is trying again to present a convincing antitrust case vs. Facebook after a federal court dismissed its initial lawsuit for failing to prove the social giant runs a monopoly. The FTC on Thursday filed […]

Erik Huberman, CEO and founder of marketing consultancy Hawke Media, has some pretty strong – if not outright harsh – words for most media agencies out there: “They’re full of [expletive].” Before founding the Los Angeles-based company in 2014, Huberman launched and sold two commerce companies – Swag of the Month and Ellie – and […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Everything Store Adds More Audio Amazon is new to podcasting but it’s moving fast, borrowing from Spotify’s playbook. After scooping up podcast publisher Wondery eight months ago, it’s now signing exclusive distribution and ad deals with buzzy podcasts like SmartLess (hosted by Jason Bateman, […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Booming Biz The DSP Viant reported a year-over-year revenue increase of 66% to $50.4 million. Viant IPOed in February, part of a recent boom in programmatic companies on the public market. As with most of those companies, Viant is going big on CTV, which […]

Ad verification and measurement provider Integral Ad Science held its first earnings call after going public just over a month ago. Revenue increased 55% to $75.1 million year-over-year. That growth was largely fueled by programmatic revenue, which jumped 94% to $31.8 million compared to the same period last year. Programmatic accounts for 42% of total Q2 revenue, as […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Reddit, Set, Go That plucky startup Reddit picked up $410 million in new venture funding from Fidelity, and may raise as much as $700 million in a new round valuing the company at $10 billion, The Wall Street Journal reports. The company raised about […]

TV measurement company VideoAmp is bringing on Tony Fagan, a former Google VP of ads data science and engineering, as its first chief technology officer. Fagan joins a number of other C-level hires over the past year, as VideoAmp plots an expansion after a $75 million funding round in May. Since 2020, former Comscore COO […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Pour One Out For The Insta-Brands Facebook surprised most analysts with a powerhouse Q2, despite the rollout of Apple’s AppTrackingTransparency (ATT) framework and new IDFA rules. But Facebook’s diminished targeting and attribution capabilities are having concrete effects on advertisers. A few years ago, many […]

Can YouTube Make Shorts Happen? YouTube launched one of its biggest brand campaigns ever this week to promote Shorts, The Drum reports. YouTube Shorts, the aptly named short-form video format (i.e., a TikTok clone), have taken over consumption on the platform. Though that’s largely because YouTube is pulling all the levers it can to make […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The Agency Revival “Broad-based recovery” is the term of the week, repeated in quarterly earnings calls by ad giants like Alphabet, Amazon and Facebook, as well as the publicly traded agency holding companies, which capped off unexpectedly strong years with additional growth in Q2 […]

Roku saw viewership decline in Q2 as pandemic restrictions eased. Streaming hours dropped a billion hours from Q1 to 17.4 billion hours in Q2, and the company’s stock was down 9% on Thursday. While Roku’s streaming hours declined sequentially, they still increased 19% from the previous year, during the early days of lockdown. It added […]

The travel industry came to a screeching halt last year as consumers stayed indoors during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Travel, however, is bouncing back, and while the delta variant could potentially derail that recovery, it hasn’t stopped airlines from encouraging folks to fly. “We definitely saw through COVID that younger audiences were traveling […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Return Of The Jedi? Google is accused of allegedly cutting a deal with Facebook (again) to “fix” ad rates in programmatic auctions, Ad Age reports. The claim is made in a new antitrust suit filed against the search giant by two Massachusetts companies. The […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Big Discovery Fresh off the news that it will merge with WarnerMedia next year to create a media behemoth, Discovery Inc. reported powerhouse earnings in Q2. Discovery ended Q2 with 17 million direct-to-consumer subscribers, up from 11 million last quarter, netting the company $400 […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Video Killed The TV Star Comcast’s and Google’s earnings calls last week mark two converging trends in brand advertising and the decline of linear TV. NBC is haggling with advertisers of the Olympics because ratings are down – 42% down – at the halfway […]

Facebook’s Q2 advertising revenue soared 56% to $28.5 billion year-over-year, though the company warned investors it expects a revenue slowdown beginning in Q3 – the same time it will feel the full impact of Apple’s recent AppTrackingTransparency changes. The total number of ad impressions served across Facebook increased 6%, while the average price per ad […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Cook Your Goose Apple shattered Q2 revenue records for practically all of its products when it reported earnings yesterday. And its services revenue, Apple’s fees from in-app sales and subscriptions, broke an all-time quarterly record – which is ridiculous, because the lazy summer months […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. ATT Impact Deferred Anyone looking for evidence of harm to mobile app giants by Apple’s AppTrackingTransparency move last quarter may well come up empty. Digital advertising is outgrowing other media channels and will likely continue doing so. “The permeable advantage of digital ads should […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Née AppNexus AT&T is reportedly in a rush to offload Xandr because the company is “losing tens of millions” of dollars per year, Axios reports. Xandr, formerly AppNexus, has been “grossly mismanaged” by AT&T, and InMobi is in talks to pick up the company […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Boom Or Bust?  New forecasts from Dentsu, WARC and others indicate the ad business is in for a boom year in 2021. GroupM projects the US ad market to grow by 15%, and global growth forecasts range from 6.4% (Magna) up to 10.4% (Dentsu). […]

Verve Group, the mobile ad tech unit of the gaming publisher Media and Games Invest (MGI), acquired the mobile gaming ad tech company Smaato on Tuesday for almost $170 million (140 million Euros). MGI Group, which trades on the Frankfurt stock exchange and a Stockholm-based Nasdaq exchange, updated its financial forecast after the Smaato deal […]

Mediaocean’s acquisition of ad server Flashtalking for $500 million in cash and stock shows the company is running hard after CTV, CEO Bill Wise tells AdExchanger. “CTV is the fastest growing part of both the Flashtalking and Mediaocean businesses so the solutions for personalized creative, verification, and analytics will bring tremendous synergy,” Wise said, speaking […]