Technology

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. SPAC’s All Folks Vice Media officially nixed plans to go public via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), at least for now, The Information reports. However, Vice did raise an additional $85 million from existing investors. A portion of those funds are earmarked for […]

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 […]

“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media. Today’s column is written by Warren Lapa, CEO, Unique. When Google announced its plans to block third-party tracking in Chrome, the ad tech ecosystem immediately pivoted to first-party data and derived personal identifiers. The pitch […]

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 […]

The “big two” in brand safety both went public this year. Over the next two weeks, AdExchanger will publish podcast interviews with both companies’ CEOs: Lisa Utzschneider of Integral Ad Science and Mark Zagorski of DoubleVerify. Utzschneider is up first. We kick off with a discussion of IAS’s acquisition of Publica, an ad server and […]

Ad measurement and verification company Method Media Intelligence uncovered a connected TV fraud scheme that it says rakes in $10 million a month in ad revenue. The scheme, dubbed “RapidFire,” feeds counterfeit bid requests into ad exchanges running open auctions for CTV inventory. Like many multimillion video fraud scams, RapidFire targets server-side ad insertion (SSAI) […]

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 […]

The field of public ad tech and digital media companies is growing large – both in number of companies and their market value. To help us untangle all of the M&A, IPOs and SPACs, Progress Partners Chief Operating Officer Domenic Venuto explains how investors approach the digital media and advertising sector. One important tell for […]

“On TV & Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video.  Today’s column is by Lynn Chealander, Director, Product Management, Xandr. Imagine the Air Buddies franchise churns out a 15th movie, and you’re rightly excited to see it on the big screen. But when you get to the theater, you […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. A Shot Across The Bows Comscore is capitalizing on Nielsen’s latest stumble. The company told AdExchanger in an email that it asked to be audited by the MRC for both national and local TV measurement accreditation – a clear dig at Nielsen’s MRC disaccreditation […]

“The Sell Sider” is a column written by the sell side of the digital media community. Today’s column is written by Kean Wang, VP, Product & Strategy, Intowow Innovation. When Google Ad Exchange completed the last mile of the industry’s transition from second-price auctions to first-price auctions in September 2019, publishers were enthusiastic about the […]

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 […]

The United States Northern District Court of California dismissed a case earlier this week brought by Hugo Elliott, a citizen of the UK who lives in England, against the American ad tech company PubMatic. The case was dismissed out of hand, so it hardly seems a notable decision. Except that it would have been the […]

A weekly comic strip from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem…

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Ecomm Dollar Signs The pandemic fueled a massive shift to online buying, and investors are following the money. Tiger Global, the investment firm that led investments in DoubleVerify and Moloco, among other ad tech startups, put a $50 million round behind Nacelle, which provides […]

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 […]

The past few months have been wild for online advertising. Apple has implemented its AppTrackingTransparency (ATT) framework, and Google announced it would delay the phase-out of third-party cookies in Chrome. A tumultuous ride to be sure. What will be the real impact of these moves on ad tech? AdExchanger examined the Q2 earnings reports of […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The InfoSum Of Its Parts The data onboarding startup InfoSum raised $65 million at a valuation of $300 million, up from a $100 million tag a year ago when the company landed a $15 million investment. Ad tech companies have been capitalizing in investor […]

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 […]

“The Sell Sider” is a column written by the sell side of the digital media community. Today’s column is written by Premesh Purayil, CTO, Freestar. As we all know, Google’s Core Web Vitals scores and related changes to search result prioritization have thrust site speed and user experience to the forefront for all publishers.  Ask […]

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 […]

Ad verification company DoubleVerify recently shut down a new type of scheme in connected TV that uses screensavers to hijack streaming devices in order to generate fake ad impressions – even when the screen is off. DoubleVerify estimates that the scam, dubbed “SmokeScreen,” is bilking advertisers out of more than $6 million a month and […]

Subscribe to AdExchanger Talks on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud or wherever you listen to podcasts. On the heels of an Axios report that InMobi is in talks to acquire Xandr from AT&T, InMobi rolled out a new offering for mobile telcos. Coincidence? Called InMobi Telco, the business unit provides infrastructure for mobile carriers […]

Wall Street can’t get enough of ad tech – creating a hot market for stocks and making quarterly earnings a who’s who of ad tech companies. Not so long ago, the ad tech bellwethers were The Trade Desk and Magnite, but earnings season now features a parade of companies young and old: PubMatic, DoubleVerify, Viant, […]

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 […]