Darren Glatt: Avoiding ‘Zombies’ When Investing In Ad Tech

This week on the AdExchanger Talks podcast, we’re pleased to talk with Darren Glatt, a seasoned investor and MediaMath board member. Glatt is the guy who led Searchlight Capital’s $225 million investment in MediaMath, which closed almost exactly a year ago. He shares his point of view on the current state of play in ad tech and how MediaMath can grow over the next two to three years.

“Ad tech gets a horrible reputation as a result of the zombie companies and companies that have gone into receivership,” such as Videology and Sizmek, Glatt says. “But there’s still a small but thriving group of independent companies that continues to do very well. And I believe MediaMath to be one of those.”

In that open landscape, there are just a handful of players that matter in the sense of having scale, global coverage and omnichannel capabilities, according to Glatt. MediaMath is one and as such has a large future opportunity if it can maintain discipline and focus, something that has occasionally proven elusive at the company.

“Part of my role as a private equity investor is to say, ‘OK, there are 10 ideas but really only three of them are going to drive 90% of the value,’” he says.

In this episode: What are those three ideas? Will the US break up big tech? Will the telecoms win the TV wars?

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