Magnite says it’s not mad at The Trade Desk for prioritizing OpenPath or labeling all supply-side platforms as “resellers.”
Not that Magnite classifies itself as a reseller anyway, according to what CEO Michael Barrett told investors during the company’s Q3 earnings call on Wednesday.
“We’re often painted as the foil to The Trade Desk,” Barrett said. “But I would say 99% of the stuff that Jeff [Green, TTD’s CEO] does is brilliant, and we are so supportive of cleaning up the system.”
Of course, the fact that Magnite had quite a good third quarter helps smooth over any possible tensions that could have arisen.
Revenue was up 11% year over year, from $162 million to $179.5 million, which Barrett said exceeded Magnite’s expectations for the quarter.
Audio was the fastest-growing format in DV+, which is Magnite’s display and video business excluding connected TV. The DV+ segment overall generated $90.9 million in revenue after traffic acquisition costs, which translates to 7% YOY growth for the quarter, or 10% if you exclude political spending.
Meanwhile, CTV generated $75.8 million at an 18% YOY growth rate (or 25% excluding political), which was higher than expected.
Driving significant growth
As usual, Barrett name-dropped several of “the industry’s largest players,” crediting them for driving CTV growth in the quarter.
He highlighted Netflix, Roku and Warner Bros. Discovery for their ongoing partnership with Magnite on the Netflix Ads Suite, the Roku Exchange, and WBD’s new NEO platform, respectively.
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Barrett also pointed to Magnite’s private marketplace deals with agencies as playing a key role in boosting CTV growth, and emphasized SpringServe as a “significant differentiator” for Magnite with publisher partners.
On the AI front, he mentioned Magnite’s recent acquisition of Streamr.ai in September as an opportunity to help small businesses break into CTV with generative AI production and optimization tools.
Streamr’s ad transaction capabilities are built on an agentic AI framework known as model context protocol (MCP), which will also be integrated into Magnite’s direct-to-buyer product, ClearLine.
Expect MCP – or more specifically, AdCP, which is a new collaborative AI framework recently developed by a group of ad tech and AI companies – to play a key role in Magnite’s broader AI strategy, Barrett said.
We’re not mad, promise
But, back to The Trade Desk drama, beyond the abstract idea that TTD’s new SSP policies might clean up ad duplication and cut out bad-faith resellers, investors wanted to know what impact they’ll have on Magnite’s business moving forward.
Not much, said Barrett. Magnite has already worked with most of its major buyers, including agency holding companies, to reconnect it as a preferred supply path, which means much of the potential fallout has already been mitigated.
Even so, despite strong year-to-date performance, Magnite floated slightly softer guidance for Q4, with DV+ only expected to grow between 2% and 5%, or 7% to 10% excluding political.
But either way, Barrett said, “Magnite has proven its efficacy in the industry, and I think that the strength of those relationships will help us mitigate any headwinds that come from this change.”
Okay maybe a little mad
So, relations with The Trade Desk are mostly simpatico.
But with Google, though? Not so much.
Magnite filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google in September, which the company hinted it might pursue during its Q2 earnings call in August. The lawsuit alleges Google engaged in anticompetitive practices that harmed Magnite and other independent players in digital advertising markets.
Where the ongoing DOJ antitrust trial is concerned, Magnite’s leadership team is confident in the court’s ability to “reach the right outcome” now that the remedies phase has officially concluded, Barrett said.
“Our point of view is that any decision that helps restore competition and eliminates Google’s self-preferencing behavior will be a big win for the open internet,” he said.
In the meantime, though, Magnite hasn’t seen any direct gain in market share from Google – or, not yet, at least.
“Any of the share gains that we’re seeing against our competitors aren’t coming from Google,” Barrett said. “They’re coming from the open web, and so all that is upside for us.”
