Technology

Rubicon Project went public earlier this month, becoming the fifth ad tech company – give or take – to do so since the IPO door was flung open around this time last year. Since then its stock has had a bumpy ride, but no more so than some others in its class. CEO Frank Addante […]

Content discovery company Outbrain has allegedly flirted with an IPO for well over a year now, with the most recent report claiming a target of around $100 million. CEO Yaron Galai did not comment on a potential IPO, which is expected to materialize in the first half of the year. Instead, he focused his attention […]

Rocket Fuel’s stock closed at $31.04 Friday, near its lowest point since the ad tech company went public six months ago. The sell-off comes after a group of more than seven investors and senior executives cashed out to the tune of more than $150 million, as reported by InsiderTradingWire. Those transactions, which earned more than $14 […]

RockYou is clawing its way back. The 8-year-old company, which once produced social games, was one of the first MySpace and Facebook third-party app developers until it suffered a major data breach five years ago that exposed unencrypted user account data of more than 32 million users. That wasn’t RockYou’s only struggle. The company couldn’t […]

There are two general methods for targeting consumers as they flit across desktops and devices: match various online log-ins and/or make educated guesses about an identity based on aggregated device characteristics. Many data-focused ad tech companies can do the former; fewer can do the latter as well. MediaMath, through its acquisition Thursday of French cross-device […]

Google’s search engine may eventually reward Web sites that use encryption and if it does, advertisers may find themselves cut off from useful data. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s Webspam team, hinted at the recent SMX West conference hosted by Search Engine Watch editor Danny Sullivan that Google is indeed considering revising its search […]

Facebook’s unveiling last week of a mobile feature called Nearby Friends, through which it might enable location-targeted ads, places the company in a highly competitive segment of tech vendors offering similar products. The company that will develop the best location-targeted ad product, however, is the one that will couple it with the most relevant consumer […]

First Facebook, then Twitter and now Google. The search giant unveiled plans Tuesday to offer app install ads on mobile search and YouTube (where they’ll be presented like TrueView ads), similar to the units that have been a cash cow for Facebook. The company said it plans to launch this new product over the next […]

Marketing M&A deal activity increased 22% year over year, marking one of the highest volume quarters on record, according to new data from mid-market investment bank Berkery Noyes. On a quarterly basis, media and marketing transaction volume increased by 3% from 423 to 434 deals; average deal size also climbed, increasing from $25.1 billion to […]

Four months after first introducing support for native advertising, Twitter’s mobile exchange MoPub is pitching the solution to all publishers. Consisting of an native ads SDK, a publisher-side ad server,  and an RTB extension, the MoPub native product is a “a complete solution for direct sold and exchange traded native ads, delivering the same control […]

Premium publishers have needed some convincing to open up their more valuable inventory to programmatic buying technologies. But interest in tools that streamline the often unwieldy direct sales process has heated up. It’s one of the reasons Yieldex, a company best known for producing forecasting and analytics tools for premium inventory, introduced a new line […]

Despite some volatility in ad pricing and performance last quarter, Adobe Index’s Q1 2014 Social Media Intelligence Report indicates Facebook remains the leader in driving revenue per visit (RPV). Meanwhile other platforms – namely Twitter, Tumblr and Pinterest – are in some instances noticing quarterly double-digit declines in RPV. In paid social, Facebook saw a […]

Retargeting platform AdRoll announced a $70 million funding round, led by Foundation Capital. The San Francisco-based company, which had previously raised $19 million, has expanded rapidly since launching in 2007 and become a leader in the retargeting space. AdRoll plans to use the investment to beef up its existing platform for mobile, and expand hiring at […]

Most know Adobe for the company’s Creative and Marketing Cloud offerings, but it’s the company’s end-to-end, “TV Everywhere” platform Adobe Primetime that steals the show with broadcasters and cable operators like NBC Sports and Time Warner Cable. The year-old platform encompasses technology Adobe acquired when it bought video ads platform Auditude in 2011, as well […]

Krux’s co-founders, CEO Tom Chavez and CTO Vivek Vaidya, discuss what the company offers in terms of linking consumers across devices. This is the eighth in AdExchanger’s series on the cross-device question, in which we examine what each DMP can provide in terms of connecting the identities or profiles of consumers across the digital, mobile […]

As programmatic buying continues to grow internationally, one region is catching companies’ eyes: Asia Pacific. But online advertising technology in countries like China is a completely different beast than what many Western ad tech companies are used to. Many players in the ad tech space in China, including the major publishers, are international companies looking […]

Correction 4/17: The product name is Harvest RTG, not Heritage RTG as originally stated. Public service advertising (PSA) agency PlowShare is introducing a programmatic trading desk, Harvest RTG, built by advertising technology provider RUN. The platform is designed to enable non-profits to run PSA’s programmatically, targeting diverse audiences across different screens. Josh Millman, director of digital […]

Google posted a solid quarter, as total revenues for Q1 2014 jumped to $15.42 billion, a 19% increase compared to this time last year. During its earnings call, Google emphasized its ambitions to extend its value as a brand builder and to close the price gap between mobile and desktop display advertising. Google also stated […]

Despite a surge in programmatic buying for mobile ads, a recent Forrester report cautions that challenges unique to mobile advertising make direct sales away from open marketplaces the preferred buying method for the foreseeable future. Based on interviews with 21 industry executives, mobile marketing analyst Jennifer Wise wrote in her report – “Mobile Advertising: It’s Time to […]

Facebook’s Atlas Advertiser Suite is laying the groundwork to support “programmatic direct” buys for Microsoft inventory. Beginning in early 2015, Atlas will begin supporting programmatic purchases of Microsoft ads directly through the Atlas interface. Atlas customers will be able to query avails in Microsoft’s ad serving system and reserve guaranteed buys programmatically. Over time the […]

Apple has been slow to improve its offerings around mobile app installs, but it’s showing signs of life. Last week, the company issued its first clear signal that its Identifier for Advertising (IDFA) can be used as an attribution tool. But what about its own mobile ad product, a.k.a. iAd? The company has been more […]

Lotame’s VP of Product Management Kalyan Lanka discusses what the company offers in terms of linking consumers across devices. This is the seventh in AdExchanger’s series on the cross-device question, in which we examine what each data management platform (DMP) can provide in terms of connecting the identities or profiles of consumers across the digital, […]

A year after rolling out Catalyst, its audience targeting and insights tool, Condé Nast Digital is enhancing the product to unify its audiences across digital and mobile platforms. Like many publishers, Condé Nast has “seen massive growth in the last two years,” said Christopher Reynolds, VP of marketing analytics for Condé Nast. Last year, Reynolds […]

When SAP and Adobe linked arms during last month’s Adobe Summit in Salt Lake City, it was unclear whether the reseller program was more about shared customers or code. But insiders note a third player indirectly involved in what seemed like a two-company partnership: management consulting giant Accenture. Like SAP, Accenture has been making a […]

Adobe senior product manager Chris Comstock discusses what the company offers in terms of linking consumers across devices. This is the sixth in AdExchanger’s series on the cross-device question, in which we examine what each DMP can provide in terms of connecting the identities or profiles of consumers across the digital, mobile and offline ecosystem. […]

Kraft knows that consumers are easily distracted. At Forrester’s Forum for Marketing Leaders, Bob Rupczynski, VP of media, data and CRM at Kraft Foods, outlined Kraft’s strategy for leveraging the CPG company’s vast customer data through a data management platform (DMP) and programmatic advertising. “Through our meals, recipes and videos, we have about a billion […]

Apple has given its tacit approval for the use of its Identifier for Advertising (IDFA) to attribute app installs and post-install actions. The development, welcomed by app marketers and their ad partners, comes two months after Apple spread fear in the app ecosystem by rejecting some apps that didn’t adhere to a narrow ad serving […]

When the Media Ratings Council (MRC) last week lifted its advisory against buying and selling display ads based on viewability, it marked a milestone in determining whether an ad was actually seen. However, a number of industry execs say the problem is far from solved in display (let alone video, which still lacks a common […]

Correction 4/11: This article initially wrote Neustar reports to a Congressional committee. A company spokesperson said Neustar does not have a government contract and they are not audited by Congress. They have a telecom industry contract that is overseen by the FCC. David Jakubowski came on board Neustar as SVP of marketing services after it acquired […]

IBM will acquire email and marketing automation vendor Silverpop, the companies said Thursday. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but a story last month in the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported the value of a rumored acquisition at $270 million. IBM, like Adobe and Oracle, has remained steady on the acquisitions front. “They got massive marketing […]