Deals & Moves

Twitter's entry into mobile programmatic — MoPub's mobile SSP became Twitter's ad-tech backbone. Sold to AppLovin in 2021.

Telco-meets-content: AT&T bought the largest US satellite TV operator. Set up later moves (AT&T + Time Warner) and the eventual Xandr ad business.

Closed at a discount after Yahoo's data-breach disclosures. Combined with AOL to form Oath, later renamed Verizon Media.

Filled the demand-side gap in Adobe Advertising Cloud. TubeMogul's programmatic video DSP became Adobe Advertising Cloud DSP.

Set the foundation for Xandr — AT&T's short-lived enterprise ad-tech business. AppNexus DSP + SSP became AT&T's buy-side / sell-side stack.

Comcast outbid Disney for the European pay-TV operator. Gave Comcast a major footprint outside the US.

Salesforce's biggest acquisition pre-Slack. Tableau's analytics + visualization layer became part of Salesforce's data + analytics push.

Marketing project management — Workfront filled the campaign-orchestration gap in the Adobe Experience Cloud stack.

Adobe's entry into web analytics + marketing measurement, foundation of what became Adobe Analytics + Adobe Experience Cloud.

Oracle's entry into the DMP business. BlueKai data became the audience layer of Oracle's marketing cloud (later Oracle Data Cloud).

Salesforce's push into social marketing — Buddy Media's tools for managing brand presence on Facebook + Twitter became part of Marketing Cloud.

Verizon's first major media play — gave it AOL's ad stack (One platform, ad-tech), Huffington Post, and the foundation of what became Oath/Verizon Media.

Cross-channel campaign management — Neolane became Adobe Campaign, a core piece of the Adobe Experience Cloud marketing suite.

Early ad-server consolidation: DoubleClick acquired NetGravity in stock deal that combined two leading early-internet ad-serving platforms.

Microsoft's biggest acquisition. LinkedIn's 433M-user professional graph became core to Microsoft's B2B + recruitment + advertising strategy.

Amazon outbid Google for the live-streaming platform. Twitch became Amazon's gaming + streaming + ad-supported video front-line.

After 20 months of antitrust review, AT&T closed the Time Warner deal — added HBO + Warner Bros + Turner to the DirecTV + Xandr stack.

Identity resolution becomes a structural layer — Acxiom's LiveRamp acquisition made onboarding offline data into digital ads a packaged product. LiveRamp later spun out as standalone in 2018.

Fox-owned Tubi launched its self-serve advertising platform, Tubi Ads Manager, allowing advertisers to directly buy and manage CTV campaigns. The platform provides access to Tubi's 80+ million monthly active users with targeting and measurement capabilities. This democratizes access to one of the largest free ad-supported streaming services.

OpenAI confirmed plans to launch advertising on ChatGPT, marking its entry into the digital advertising market. The company hired advertising executives from Google and Meta to build out its ad business. This represents a significant expansion of AI-powered advertising platforms beyond traditional search and social media.

AppLovin acquired CTV platform Wurl for $430 million to expand its connected TV advertising capabilities. Wurl provides streaming distribution and advertising technology to content owners and platforms. The acquisition strengthens AppLovin's position in the rapidly growing CTV advertising market.

Yahoo appointed Iván Markman as Chief Business Officer to oversee its advertising business and drive growth across its adtech portfolio. Markman, who previously led Verizon Media's business development, was tasked with expanding Yahoo's DSP and SSP offerings. The appointment signaled Yahoo's renewed focus on competing in the programmatic advertising space.

Roku launched OneView, a unified measurement and planning platform that enables advertisers to plan, activate, and measure campaigns across streaming and linear TV. The platform integrates first-party streaming data with traditional TV measurement to provide holistic audience insights. OneView represents Roku's push to become a central hub for converged TV advertising.

TikTok launched the TikTok Creative Exchange, a marketplace connecting brands with vetted creative partners to produce platform-native advertising content. The platform includes AI-powered creative tools and performance analytics to help brands optimize their TikTok campaigns. This launch addresses the challenge brands face in creating effective short-form video content for TikTok.