When it comes to the massive acquisitions making headlines in the video game industry, the implications run much deeper than what titles gamers can play exclusively on which systems. In Microsoft’s case, we’re talking about a sleeping giant in the ad industry with an incredibly strong subscription-based first-party data operation, Xbox Game Pass, at its disposal.
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Let’s See, LG Smart TV manufacturer LG is on board with the outcomes-based buying trend, but with a twist – advertisers that don’t hit performance goals don’t have to pay. On Wednesday, LG Ads Solutions launched Guaranteed Outcomes, which promises brands they’ll only pay […]
AT&T has sold its ad tech business Xandr to Microsoft. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition marks the end of a painful and unsuccessful run for the one-time leader of the programmatic industry, AppNexus, which was rebranded Xandr but never found a home within the AT&T organization. Former AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson […]
WarnerMedia’s advertising and analytics unit Xandr has partnered with healthcare marketing and analytics platform Lasso to deliver programmatic advertising to the pharma and healthcare industries across CTV, social and email. Mike DiNorscio, Lasso co-founder and chief revenue officer, told AdExchanger that the partnership, formally announced on Monday, had been underway since Lasso launched in December […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Supercookies Crumble The newest version of Mozilla’s browser, Firefox 85, includes protection against so called “supercookies.” What the heck are supercookies? According to Mozilla, they can be used in place of ordinary cookies to store user identifiers, but are much more difficult to delete […]
When Xandr launched in 2018, it had a grand vision to be the data-driven platform and ad marketplace for the TV industry. But from the start, industry insiders were skeptical that plan would ever come to fruition, and few were surprised when Xandr announced last week it would fold into WarnerMedia. “We kind of thought […]
Grindr and a handful of other dating apps are getting publicly pummeled for sharing personal user data, including location data and sexual preferences, with third-party companies. But Grindr, OKCupid, Tinder and others are not alone. The practice is pervasive among every type of app. A report released Tuesday by the Norwegian Consumer Council, an Oslo-based […]
The advertising industry today is largely the product of tremendous M&A activity. AdExchanger looked at the acquisitions that made the biggest impact in the past decade. Impact can mean many things. Some of these startups flourished under their new owners, showing worth far more than their deal price. Others, purchased during their downfall, reflect the […]
Longtime AppNexus President Michael Rubenstein will leave the business at the end of the year. Rubenstein is the latest top executive at AppNexus to leave since the company was acquired by AT&T under its Xandr unit for $2 billion in June 2018. Founder and CEO Brian O’Kelley left the company in October 2018. Rubenstein joined […]
Goodbye AppNexus SSP, hello Xandr Monetize. One year after its acquisition by AT&T, AppNexus is rebranding its exchange to Xandr Monetize. It’s also adding a slew of new features to support its vision of offering a full programmatic stack for video-heavy publishers. Xandr Monetize is the third Xandr-branded product to launch, after Xandr Community and […]
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is researching the privacy practices of AppNexus, Oath and other advertising subsidiaries owned by broadband companies. The agency is in the midst of examining the privacy policies, procedures and practices of broadband providers as part of an overarching study into how telecom companies are morphing into vertically integrated behemoths that […]
This week on AdExchanger Talks, 614 Group CEO and Founder Rob Rasko graces the studio for a discussion of the changing nature of programmatic and entrepreneurship. 2018 was a year of change in programmatic, exemplified by Xandr’s acquisition of AppNexus. The deal has created uncertainty: Where will networks that used to transact on the AppNexus […]
Late last year, Havas Media began formalizing rules for how it works with SSPs and exchanges. The rules required them to shed light on previously non-transparent practices, like publisher fees, supply quality, access to log-level reporting and auction dynamics. Havas wasn’t an outlier. Hearts & Science also runs a 50-point certification process with SSPs and […]
AdExchanger Talks is a podcast focused on data-driven marketing. Subscribe here. The godfather of programmatic has retired from advertising. Or has he? In his first interview since selling AppNexus to AT&T for an estimated $1.6 billion (and stepping down), former CEO Brian O’Kelley comes on the AdExchanger podcast for a nice long talk. O’Kelley, known to friends […]
If Xandr wants to live up to its promise and create a programmatic marketplace for the TV industry, it’s going to have to convince agencies to buy what it’s offering. The AT&T-owned company recently hired Jay Askinasi for the job, and he joined Xandr in early February as VP, head of digital and agency partnerships. […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. DTC Playbook, Written A values-driven brand with the best X in its category launches on Facebook, quickly gains customers and uses data to improve its products and its marketing process. Ever feel like direct-to-consumer brands are all following the same unwritten set of rules? […]
If you’re a mature marketing technology platform: Congrats. 2018 was your year and the future looks bright. But if you’re an ad tech company without a unique value prop that’s jonesing for an exit, apologies, the outlook remains fairly bleak. Although digital advertising is still growing – it’s a $100 billion market today – Google and Facebook […]
Over-the-top TV wasn’t invented in 2018, but 2018 was certainly its year. Advertising on over-the-top (OTT) was one of the hot-button issues at Dmexco, Advertising Week and other major conferences this year – for good reason. Content providers, DSPs and others in the industry are seeing explosive growth in this sector of their businesses. The […]
AT&T’s ad tech unit Xandr has big hopes for TV advertising, but the company said Thursday during an analyst call that it’s also going to be heavily involved in powering online ads. “You will continue to see Xandr media business outpace the television market in 2019,” Xandr CEO Brian Lesser told investors. “And now what […]
Brian O’Kelley’s departure as CEO of AppNexus surprised few in the industry who know him. His sharp opinions and independent mindset made him an ad tech provocateur and a fearless leader. But that same personality seemed incompatible with taking a subservient role to Xandr CEO Brian Lesser within the AT&T mega-corporation. After all, this is […]
AppNexus’s new telco owner, AT&T, has withdrawn it from the Advertising ID Consortium, a shared industry cookie ID it co-founded last year, along with other independent ad tech platforms. Adweek first reported the move on Thursday. Does the withdrawal spell curtains for the independent identity graph before it really got off the ground? The consortium […]
Development of the Advertising ID Consortium, a shared cookie-based ID service for programmatic companies, has stalled as two of the key backers, AppNexus and LiveRamp, undertake protracted M&A processes. The consortium is still moving forward, according to sources with knowledge of the nonprofit group’s product development, but the already complicated politics of ‘co-opetition’ are exacerbated […]
Turner inventory will soon be available through the AppNexus ad platform, AT&T top dog Randall Stephenson said at an event Wednesday. Speaking at Goldman Sachs’ Communacopia conference in New York, Stephenson also told attendees how he hopes to expand HBO viewership and said that federal authorities must codify rules around privacy and net neutrality. Advertising is […]
“On TV And Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video. Today’s column is written by Frank Sinton, founder and CEO at Beachfront Media. AT&T’s move to acquire AppNexus is a strategic one to position the company within its growing digital footprint. While AT&T has long been one of the […]
AppNexus launched the first video advertising product for its demand-side platform (DSP) in late 2015. Over the next two years it built out its video offering to include a supply-side platform (SSP) solution, a video ad server, a video header bidding product and a connected-TV marketplace. With its acquisition by AT&T expected to close later […]
A weekly comic strip from AdExchanger that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem…
AT&T has big plans to operate a programmatic exchange for the advanced TV advertising industry. Its Monday acquisition of AppNexus gives AT&T the infrastructure and relationships with content owners and buyers to operate that exchange at scale. But it remains to be seen if AppNexus clients will be spooked by its loss of independence and […]
AT&T acquired AppNexus. So what’s it going to do with it? Both the buy side and the supply side will remain intact. AT&T will build out each part of AppNexus’ business, Brian Lesser, CEO of AT&T advertising and analytics, told AdExchanger. AT&T data will become a “very meaningful” carrot for buyers using AppNexus’ DSP, he […]
The rumors were true. AT&T said Monday it will acquire AppNexus for its advertising and analytics unit, which is headed up by former GroupM chief (and ex-AppNexus board member) Brian Lesser. The acquisition is expected to close in Q3. Read the release. Terms were not disclosed, though The Wall Street Journal pegged the price tag […]
AT&T rode into Cannes this year amid fanfare following its Time Warner acquisition, freshly rebranded as WarnerMedia. But trailing in its wake are a lot of questions around what this mega-merger means for the advertising landscape. Intentionally or not, AT&T added to the ambiguity with its Cannes branding – or complete lack thereof. The telco […]
