CTV, AI & The Open Internet: The Outbrain-Teads Merger’s Big Promise

Why Every Brand Marketer Should Care About This $1B Adtech Shakeup

Brand marketers, take note: the adtech landscape just got a major remix. Outbrain’s $1 billion acquisition of Teads, finalized in February 2025, marks a strategic consolidation that could redefine how brands engage with consumers across the open internet. If you’re looking to navigate this new reality, here’s what you need to know and how it impacts your brand’s marketing strategy.

What’s the Big Deal?

This isn’t just another merger; it’s the creation of an omnichannel advertising powerhouse. The deal fuses Outbrain’s AI-driven performance marketing with Teads’ premium video-first branding solutions, bridging the long-standing gap between branding and performance marketing. The combined entity now boasts:

• $1.7B in annual advertising spend
• Access to 2.2B consumers across premium publisher environments
• AI-driven ad optimization, processing 4B signals per minute
• CTV scale, unlocking 50B monthly ad opportunities through key OEM and streaming partnerships

For marketers, this means a more unified, data-driven approach to reaching audiences at every stage of the funnel—from awareness to conversion.

How This Changes the Game for Brand Marketers

1. A True Full-Funnel Solution

Gone are the days of siloed branding and performance campaigns. With Outbrain’s predictive AI and Teads’ video expertise, brands now get:

• Top-of-funnel awareness via premium video inventory
• Mid-to-bottom funnel engagement powered by AI-driven interest and contextual targeting
• Performance-based attribution that connects branding efforts to measurable conversions

This merger delivers on what marketers have long been asking for: a single platform that scales from inspiration to transaction.

2. Premium Inventory & Exclusive Access

Forget cookie-based retargeting—context is the new king. Outbrain and Teads now control:

• 10,000+ premium publisher environments (think: brand-safe, high-quality content)
• Exclusive CTV homescreen placements, unlocking high-impact ad experiences
• Integrated first-party data solutions, enhancing targeting in a cookieless world

3. AI-Powered Creative Optimization

Brands spend millions on creative, yet so many ads still get ignored. Enter AI-powered creative optimization, which:

• Scans 130,000 articles per minute for contextual alignment
• Dynamically adjusts creative elements in real time
• Yields 74% higher attention rates for CTV-native ads

In other words, your ad creative just got a whole lot smarter.

What This Means for Media Planners

1. CTV & Digital Are No Longer Separate

Marketers have long struggled to measure CTV-driven conversions—until now. The new CTV-to-Digital Attribution model bridges the gap between streaming impressions and digital actions. Expect more precise targeting, cross-channel tracking, and a better understanding of how CTV impacts lower-funnel activity.

2. Walled Gardens Are Losing Their Grip

Google and Meta have long dominated digital advertising, but Outbrain-Teads is carving out an open-internet alternative with:

• Better supply path transparency (rated #1 most direct)
• First-party data integrations with premium publishers
• AI-driven targeting that doesn’t rely on third-party cookies

For brands wary of Big Tech’s control, this could be a major shift in advertising strategy.

3. Efficiency Gains Mean Bigger Budgets for Innovation

With $65-75M in estimated synergies, Outbrain-Teads is consolidating tech stacks and reducing operational redundancies. This could mean more cost-effective ad solutions for brands, freeing up budget for creative and strategic innovation.

Regulatory & Market Response

The industry has taken note of this major adtech consolidation, with reactions spanning from regulatory approvals to advertiser endorsements:

• Regulatory Green Light: UK and French antitrust authorities cleared the merger in February 2025, validating its pro-competitive stance against walled gardens.
• Advertiser Adoption: Early adopters like Lipton Teas report "full-funnel solutions driving better business outcomes."
• Industry Experts Weigh In: Adweek analysts call the deal a "transformative transaction" that is likely to spur further innovation in open-web measurement and attribution.

CEO Perspectives on the Merger

The CEOs of both Outbrain and Teads have expressed enthusiasm about their merger. Here are key quotes from each:

David Kostman, CEO of Outbrain (now CEO of the combined company):

"I am extremely excited about this new chapter in our journey. This transformative merger creates a company that directly addresses a large gap in the advertising industry: a scaled end-to-end platform that can drive outcomes, from branding to consideration to purchase, across screens."

"The new Teads' mission is to drive lasting value with an offering that invites marketers to expect better outcomes, media owners to expect sustainable value, and consumers to expect elevated experiences."

"This is a transformative transaction to establish a true end-to-end, full-funnel platform for the open internet. The combination of our highly-complementary offerings accelerates our vision to become the preferred partner to deliver meaningful brand outcomes across premium, quality media environments — while scaling the industry-leading offerings Teads is known for."

Bertrand Quesada, former CEO of Teads (now Co-President):

"This strategic combination presents vast new opportunities for the advertising industry at large. We've built a world-class team at Teads that has focused on driving the best video and branding outcomes, and in the last several years have successfully brought those strengths to CTV."

"By joining our expertise in omnichannel video with Outbrain's strengths in prediction and performance, we are poised to provide our customers and partners with more value than ever before. Having known the Outbrain team for a decade, we know we're creating an amazing combined company focused on innovation and excellence."

Final Thoughts: The Future of Adtech Is Integrated

The Outbrain-Teads merger is more than a business transaction—it’s a signal of where adtech is headed. Brands that embrace this new wave of AI-powered, omnichannel advertising will be the ones that stay ahead.

For brand marketers, the message is clear: the days of fragmented, inefficient advertising are numbered. The future is about full-funnel, data-driven strategies that deliver real business outcomes.

What do you think—will this merger shake up your media planning? Let’s discuss.