At the tail end of last year I profiled 17 European ad tech companies that I expect to do big things in 2021. With the exception of one or two, these companies are very much at the start of their journey. In this post I am going to focus on four mature, scaled European ad tech companies that, in the year ahead, will be looking at various financial options.  Criteo Criteo is the undisputed king of European ad tech. It has successfully [...]

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There are lots of startups emerging from Europe that are addressing measurement and targeting in a privacy-first world. Below I profile 17 European ad tech companies that will have a big 2021, and why you, dear readers, need to keep an eye on them. The 17 cut across the sweet spots of ad tech right now: privacy, ID, context, measurement, emerging channels (gaming mostly), and shopping commerce.   1. Zeotap It’s been a stellar year for Zeotap. The company to date has done [...]

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In today’s ExchangeWire digest: EU criticised for slow antitrust action against big tech firms; ad tech trio PubMatic, Magnite, and Index Exchange, join the Unified ID 2.0 initiative; and brand performance marketing platform Launchmetrics acquires Parklu. EU criticised for slow big tech action The EU has been too slow to respond to anticompetitive threats imposed by big tech companies such as Google, Facebook, and Apple, as well as lacks the legal firepower to intervene appropriately, according to a newly-published report by the [...]

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In today’s ExchangeWire news digest: Zeotap extends Series C financing to USD$60.5m; MeritDirect acquires 180byTwo; and WPP consolidates Geometry with VMLY&R to form VMLY&R Commerce. Zeotap extends Series C financing to USD$60.5m (£45.8m) Customer intelligence platform (CIP) Zeotap has announced a USD$18.5m (£14.0m) extension to its Series C financing round brokered in July this year, taking total funding raised through the tranche to USD$60.5m (£45.8m). The extension was led by SignalFire’s Breakout Fund vehicle, and will be used by Zeotap to further [...]

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In today’s ExchangeWire news digest: iHeartMedia to acquire Voxnest to boost its podcast programmatic capabilities; Rokt raises USD$80m (£61m) for personalised marketing solutions; and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) releases its interim report into digital platform dominance. iHeartMedia to acquire Voxnest Global entertainment and media holding company iHeartMedia has announced it has signed an agreement to purchase New York-based audio technology firm Voxnest, in which it previously owned a minority stake. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. According [...]

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In today’s ExchangeWire news digest: US House calls for big tech breakup; Jellyfish acquires Reamp and San Pancho; and Reliance calls off Viacom-18 merger with Sony. US House calls for breakup of big tech The United States House of Representatives antitrust subcommittee has concluded its investigation into the monopolistic practices of the big tech firms, namely Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple, deeming that the behemoths are guilty of “gatekeeping” to the detriment of independent third-party companies and consumers. Apple and Amazon have [...]

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It is this time of year when we traditionally head to the BFI Southbank for ATS London; a day-long feast of madtech content. Most then hop on a plane the next day to Cologne for a 48-hour bonanza of networking and socialising.  Unfortunately due to Covid-19, both the Glastonbury of ad tech, namely ATS London, and the physical DMEXCO have been canceled.  Sure, virtual events fill a tiny slice of this empty void – but ultimately it’s a bit like eating dry [...]

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In today’s ExchangeWire news digest: Facebook moots iOS 14 Audience Network shutdown; Mightyhive merges with Brightblue; and WPP revenue falls by 15.1%. Facebook moots iOS 14 Audience Network shutdown Facebook has announced a series of measures in response to the upcoming iOS 14 update on Apple devices, revealing that the social media giant will no longer collect the identifier for advertisers (IDFA) across its app portfolio, citing a lack of certainty and stability around the changes. The California-based firm has also [...]

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In today’s ExchangeWire news digest: Mintegral accused of click attribution fraud; Sequoia Capital and General Atlantic influencing Oracle TikTok bid; and Snowflake files for IPO.  Mintegral accused of click attribution fraud Beijing-based ad network Mintegral has been accused of committing ad attribution fraud, along with unlawfully monitoring user activity, by security firm Snyk. As originally reported in Forbes, the offending SDK was purportedly injected into over 1,200 apps with over 300 million installs across Apple’s App store. According to Synk, the SDK [...]

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In this weekly segment, ExchangeWire sums up key industry updates on ad tech from around the European region – in this edition: GSG acquires iGraal; ITV cancels 2019 dividend and abandons revenue outlook; and Simpli.fi bolsters OTT and CTV offering.  GSG acquires iGraal Germany’s Global Savings Group (GSG), the e-commerce content company, has acquired French cashback company iGraal for €123.5m in a mixture of cash and stock. Specifically, the deal was reached with iGraal’s majority owner M6 Group, and consists of €35m in [...]

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