Technology

The $3.1 billion deal on AdExchanger’s radar this week? TransUnion’s acquisition of Neustar. The deal brings together an identity resolution company with a credit reporting agency. But why is identity being tied together through these two companies? And should this raise privacy red flags? To answer those questions, we bring on former Neustar executive Steven […]

“On TV & Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video. The words we use matter. Last month, for example, the Media Rating Council recategorized the term “over-the-top” as “connected TV,” which is what most people in the industry mean when they refer to streaming. The distinction is important, because it helps buyers […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Reddit And Weep Reddit could clear $350 million in ad revenue this year, double its earnings from 2020. But Reddit’s percent-growth rate is high because revenue is relatively low; Pinterest has a similar number of active users, but earned $1.1 billion in the first […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Contextual Seed The contextual ad tech startup Seedtag raised $40 million, Business Insider reports. The Spanish company plans to add 30 employees and expand its US footprint. Before this round, Seedtag had raised $6 million to date. But contextual targeting is a buzzy category, […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The Party Line The Washington DC Attorney General’s office expanded its antitrust suit against Amazon. The complaint initially targeted Amazon’s third-party seller policies and now also encompasses first-party seller deals. The crux of the AG’s case against Amazon’s first-party seller policies is the “Minimum […]

TransUnion has agreed to plunk down $3.1 billion in cash to acquire identity resolution provider Neustar from private equity firm Golden Gate Capital. Neustar was taken private and acquired by a group of investors led by Golden Gate in late 2016 in a deal valued at $2.9 billion – which would make Neustar’s sale to TransUnion, […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Podcast Talk Podcasting has heated up, with big M&A deals in recent years, including Amazon’s acquisition of Wondery for $300 million and Spotify’s $235 million deal for Megaphone. Podcast advertising is forecasted to exceed $2 billion by 2023, according to emarketer, which revised up […]

The landscape for IP-delivered TV ads is a heck of a lot different from digital advertising. For one, consolidation is happening extremely slowly, if at all. The number of scaled platforms with big audiences is crowded and diverse and includes Roku, Amazon, Google/YouTube, Disney, NBCU/Peacock, AT&T and Comcast among many others. This week on AdExchanger […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Sting Like A VAB Days after the Media Rating Council stripped Nielsen of its accreditation for National and Local TV Ratings, the Video Advertising Bureau is getting in another dig. The industry group kickstarted Nielsen’s MRC drama in July with a call to remove […]

This article is sponsored by Oracle Advertising. CTV is undoubtedly becoming a critical slice of the advertising pie. After months at home in lockdown, without restaurants, movie theaters or live events to attend, television – more specifically, CTV – was the real winner. Between Q3 2019 and Q3 2020, streaming adoption increased 11% among viewers […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Disrupting Who?  Warby Parker and Allbirds, two DTC standouts, filed their pre-IPO S-1s last week. It was a reminder of the challenges facing digitally native vertical brands (DNVBs). Each company had its best sales year in 2020, with strong growth rates and retail businesses. […]

New York-based startup Marpipe clinched $8 million in Series A funding with the backing of some big-name investors that it will use to fuel the growth of its creative testing platform as it looks to become an ad tech unicorn. The company, founded by 26-year-old CEO Dan Pantelo last year, uses automation to generate thousands […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Is The Cart Half Full Or Half Empty? Instacart’s grocery delivery business has slowed, or at best is showing zero sales growth from this time last year. That’s largely because quarantines forced people to order online, and many have returned to in-store shopping. Frankly, […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The TV Prize Amazon plans to introduce its own line of smart TVs in the United States, perhaps as early as October, Business Insider reports. On the one hand, it’s surprising Amazon hasn’t released its own television, since it would be a natural extension […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. They See Me Rollin’ Uber tapped former Sizmek CEO and Amazon ad exec Mark Grether to lead its advertising business, Business Insider reports. Poaching Grether is a big deal for Uber as it stands up a global advertising strategy. Though Uber’s ad revenue isn’t […]

Reddit launched a new native ad unit Thursday, four months after discontinuing all programmatic advertising on its site on April 30. The offering, called Conversation Placement, appears in comment threads on Reddit sandwiched between the original post above and the first comment in the thread below. The ads are available through Reddit’s direct sales channels […]

Mediaocean will be switching private equity portfolios, moving from Vista Equity to CVC Capital Partners and TA Associates, the company announced on Tuesday. The valuation of Mediaocean or of Vista’s stake was not disclosed, except that CVC and TA are taking on Vista’s equity share. John Nardone, CEO of the Flashtalking ad server that Mediaocean […]

“The Sell Sider” is a column written by the sell side of the digital media community. Today’s column is written by Mike Chowla, Sr. Director of Product Management, PubMatic. Header bidding is now widespread and successful on the web, and Prebid.js is the most widely used solution. However, the majority of publishers using Prebid are […]

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 […]