Advanced Television

Yahoo buys BrightRoll for $640m

November 12, 2014

Yahoo is to acquire BrightRoll, a leading programmatic video advertising platform in a $640 million deal. The transaction will combine Yahoo’s premium desktop and mobile video advertising inventory with BrightRoll’s programmatic video platform and publisher relationships to bring substantial value to advertisers on both platforms. BrightRoll is a large, growing and profitable business with net revenues expected to exceed $100 million this year. Yahoo expects the transaction to enhance its EBITDA.

The acquisition will accelerate Yahoo’s strategy, which is focused on search, communications, and digital content through growth in mobile, social, native, and video advertising. Acquiring BrightRoll will dramatically strengthen Yahoo’s video advertising platform, making it the largest in the US.

Yahoo says that online video advertising is increasingly fragmented across thousands, if not millions, of sites and mobile apps. More so than with traditional broadcast television, advertisers are seeking ways to buy online video advertising at scale across many sites in fewer, simpler transactions. BrightRoll provides an elegant solution, aggregating high-quality publishers together into a unified network and utilising programmatic advertising and aggregation to allow real-time buying on the largest set of online video advertising inventory available. BrightRoll’s approach not only benefits advertisers and publishers, but also improves experiences for consumers, through better quality, more relevant advertisements.

  • BrightRoll is the industry’s leading programmatic video advertising platform for reaching audiences across desktop, mobile and connected TV.

  • BrightRoll powers digital video advertising for the world’s largest brands and agencies, including 87 of the AdAge Top 100 US advertisers, all of the top 15 advertising agencies, and all 10 of the leading demand-side platforms

  • BrightRoll served more video ads and reached more consumers in the US in 2014 than any other platform, according to comScore

  • Tens of thousands of sites and mobile apps send approximately two billion requests per day to BrightRoll to monetise the inventory they worked hard to create

“Video, along with mobile, social, and native, is driving a surge in digital advertising. Here at Yahoo, video is one of the largest growth opportunities, and BrightRoll is a terrific, strategic and financially compelling fit for our video advertising business,” said Marissa Mayer, Yahoo CEO. “As with every acquisition, we have been extremely thoughtful about our approach to the video advertising space. This acquisition will accelerate the growth of both companies – we can help BrightRoll scale to even more advertisers globally and they can bring their tremendous platform offering to Yahoo’s advertisers. The combination builds positive momentum for Yahoo’s broader display advertising business in 2015.”

“We believe the next step for programmatic video advertising as an industry is to extend and standardise globally, make cross-device buying simple and measurable, and complement and integrate with TV,” said Tod Sacerdoti, BrightRoll CEO and Founder. “We are excited to join Yahoo to materially advance efforts in each of these areas. We’re still in the early innings as an industry, and together, BrightRoll and Yahoo are committed to the vision of helping grow the entire video advertising ecosystem.”

Following the closing of the acquisition, expected in Q1 2015, BrightRoll will continue to offer its current suite of products and services. With Yahoo’s additional investment and global support, BrightRoll’s platform and advertising solutions will continue to improve and expand. BrightRoll will retain their talented team of approximately 400 employees, all of whom will remain completely focused on digital video advertising.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions.

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