Deals & Moves

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.

Foursquare acquired Factual's location data and intelligence business for approximately $150 million, consolidating two major players in location-based advertising. The acquisition combined Foursquare's consumer app data with Factual's enterprise location intelligence to create the largest independent location data platform. This merger strengthened the combined company's position against Google and Apple in location-based targeting.

Google began the general-availability rollout of the Topics API, one of Privacy Sandbox’s relevance and measurement APIs, with Chrome 115 in late July 2023, reaching most Chrome users by mid-August. Topics assigns users broad interest categories on-device from recent browsing history, as a cookie-less approach to interest-based advertising.

Kroger partnered with Instacart to expand its retail media network reach, allowing CPG brands to advertise across both Kroger's owned properties and Instacart's marketplace. The partnership connects Kroger's first-party data with Instacart's delivery platform to create new advertising opportunities.

CVS Health completed its acquisition of Signify Health, significantly expanding its healthcare data assets and capabilities that feed into CVS Media Exchange. The acquisition provides CVS with enhanced patient engagement data and home health services, creating new advertising targeting opportunities for pharmaceutical and healthcare brands.

Attain, a healthcare data and measurement company, acquired Swoop, a health data activation platform specializing in privacy-compliant targeting for pharmaceutical and healthcare advertisers. The acquisition strengthens Attain's position in the growing healthcare advertising market by combining Swoop's AI-powered patient targeting with Attain's clinical data assets.

Havas acquired London-based independent creative agency Uncommon Creative Studio, founded by former executives from Adam&EveDDB. The acquisition brings award-winning creative capabilities and high-profile clients to Havas's network, strengthening its creative and strategic advertising offerings in the UK market.

Independent performance marketing agency Tinuiti acquired Kepler Group, a global digital marketing agency with significant presence in Europe and Asia. The acquisition expands Tinuiti's international footprint and adds approximately 500 employees across multiple markets, making it one of the largest independent digital marketing agencies globally.

Yahoo appointed Jim Lanzone, former CEO of Tinder, as its new CEO to lead the company's transformation and growth strategy. Lanzone replaced interim CEO Jim Carlile and is tasked with revitalizing Yahoo's advertising business and expanding its suite of AdTech products including Yahoo Ad Tech and Yahoo ConnectID.

AdThrive and Cafe Media, two leading ad management platforms for digital publishers, merged to form Raptive, creating one of the largest independent ad management companies serving over 5,000 creators and publishers. The combined entity focuses on helping content creators monetize through programmatic advertising, sponsorships, and commerce.

Integral Ad Science (IAS) acquired Publica, a CTV ad serving and monetization platform, to expand its verification and measurement capabilities into the rapidly growing connected TV advertising market. The acquisition adds CTV ad serving technology to IAS's verification suite, allowing it to provide end-to-end solutions for CTV advertisers and publishers.

Uber launched Uber Ads Manager, a self-serve advertising platform that allows businesses of all sizes to create and manage advertising campaigns across Uber's ride-sharing and delivery apps. The platform includes audience targeting, real-time reporting, and integration with Uber's first-party data from its mobility and delivery ecosystems.

Foursquare acquired Placed, a location-based advertising measurement and attribution platform, from Snap Inc. The acquisition strengthens Foursquare's position in location intelligence and foot traffic attribution for advertisers, combining Placed's measurement capabilities with Foursquare's location data and targeting technology.

TransUnion completed its acquisition of Neustar from Verisk Analytics for $3.1B, creating a major identity resolution and marketing solutions provider. Neustar's identity graph and data capabilities complement TransUnion's consumer data assets. The combined entity serves as a significant player in addressable advertising and audience targeting.

Google began the beta rollout of Privacy Sandbox on Android in February 2023 (the first beta release shipped January 9, 2023), starting with a small share of Android 13 devices. Its APIs — including Topics, Protected Audience (formerly FLEDGE) and Attribution Reporting — were proposed as privacy-preserving alternatives to cross-app identifiers such as the Google Advertising ID.

DoubleVerify acquired OpenSlate, a contextual intelligence and brand safety platform specializing in video content analysis. The acquisition enhanced DV's contextual targeting and brand suitability capabilities for CTV and digital video advertising. OpenSlate's AI-powered content-level classification technology complemented DoubleVerify's existing verification solutions.

Quotient Technology acquired Ubimo, a location intelligence and mobile advertising platform, to enhance its digital promotion and media capabilities. The acquisition added real-world attribution and foot traffic measurement to Quotient's shopper marketing platform. This deal strengthened Quotient's ability to connect digital advertising to in-store purchases.

Tremor International rebranded to Nexxen and consolidated its advertising technology platforms into a unified end-to-end solution. The rebrand followed the company's acquisitions of Amobee and other ad tech assets, creating an integrated platform spanning DSP, SSP, data, and CTV capabilities. This consolidation aimed to simplify the complex ad tech landscape for buyers and sellers.

European ad tech companies Smart AdServer, DynAdmic, and LiquidM merged to form Equativ, creating an independent omnichannel advertising platform. The combined entity offers SSP, DSP, and ad serving capabilities focused on the European market and privacy-first advertising.

Canadian programmatic advertising platform StackAdapt raised $190M in Series D funding, achieving unicorn status with a valuation exceeding $1 billion. The funding will support international expansion and product development in native, display, and video advertising.