AdTech News Round-up
Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, on Tuesday sued a global advertising alliance and several major companies, including Unilever, Mars and CVS Health, accusing them of unlawfully conspiring to shun the social network and intentionally causing it to lose revenue. The company formerly known as Twitter accused the defendants of a “massive advertiser boycott”.
X filed the lawsuit in federal court in Texas on Tuesday against the World Federation of Advertisers as well as the companies individually.
“We tried peace for 2 years, now it is war,” Musk tweeted on Tuesday.
No need to say “allegedly” anymore, because that’s a direct quote from Judge Amit Mehta’s ruling against Google and in favor of the Department of Justice.
The decision, which came down on Monday afternoon, is the culmination of the DOJ’s case arguing that Google maintains an illegal monopoly over the search market.
You can read the whole shebang here. (It’s 268 pages long, just FYI.)
During the 10-week trial, which concluded last year (although closing arguments took place in May), witnesses for the prosecution and the defense alike shared revelations about Google’s search advertising business that Google no doubt would rather have kept out of the spotlight.
The streaming wars are? entering a new generation, marked by Paramount’s potential revival through Skydance and the emergence of unconventional social media entrants like LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok.?
Increased merger and acquisition (M&A) activity is also shaping the advertising space as legacy media players adapt to shifting consumer preferences toward streaming. This transformation underscores the growing complexity of the media landscape and the necessity for advertisers to diversify their campaigns and reach their audiences effectively.
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The rumors are true: Outbrain is buying Teads.
On Thursday, the content recommendation platform announced it will acquire Teads, the SSP and video monetization company owned by European telco Altice. The acquisition ends advanced talks, first reported on in July by Business Insider, between the two companies.
Altice, which bought Teads in 2017 for $307 million, is getting the roughly $1 billion deal price it was reportedly hoping to snag for Teads. Altice had been looking to offload its ad tech to offset its own heavy multibillion-dollar debt load.
Google announced last week that it will no longer deprecate third-party cookies from its Chrome web browser and will instead opt for a model that “elevates user choice.” The news quickly made the rounds, in an industry still reeling from when Google executives first shared their cookie-deprecation intentions in 2019. Agencies spent countless hours consulting on a path forward, marketers made accelerated tech investments and numerous ad tech businesses closed their doors — all sparked by the initial announcement.
But here’s the thing: While the decision can be reversed, the work cannot be undone. We’ve already changed. Advertisers, buyers, and suppliers have put in time and effort to mature, leading to a reformation of the industry.
With a week under their collective belts to absorb Google’s surprising, but not shocking news, that it’s doing an about-face on deprecating third-party cookies from its browsers, media agencies large and small are choosing to press ahead as if cookies are going away — especially since they kind of are anyway.?
Media agencies’ main message to clients is to focus on generating quality, usable first-party data that’s compliant, because privacy issues are rendering cookies more and more useless.?
I recently caught up with Viant co-founders Tim (CEO) and Chris (COO) Vanderhook – or, as I like to think of them, The Brothers Vanderhook – to get an update on their business.
During Q1 this year, Viant reported that streaming audio and CTV combined represented more than half of the total ad spend on its platform. Viant’s Household ID, which advertisers can use to target multiple connected devices in the same home, is helping drive this growth.
Meanwhile, more than 50% of its CTV spend in the quarter came through Viant’s Direct Access program, up from 40% the previous quarter.