Yahoo and BrightRoll have officially announced that Yahoo is to acquire BrightRoll, a programmatic video advertising platform, for $640 million. A Yahoo statement said the plan is to combine Yahoo’s premium desktop and mobile video advertising inventory with BrightRoll’s programmatic video platform and publisher relationships.
BrightRoll’s net revenues are expected to exceed $100 million this year and — as the company is already profitable — Yahoo expects the transaction to enhance its EBITDA.
“Video, along with mobile, social, and native, is driving a surge in digital advertising. Here at Yahoo, video is one of the largest growth opportunities, and BrightRoll is a terrific, strategic and financially compelling fit for our video advertising business,” said Marissa Mayer, Yahoo CEO. “As with every acquisition, we have been extremely thoughtful about our approach to the video advertising space. This acquisition will accelerate the growth of both companies – we can help BrightRoll scale to even more advertisers globally and they can bring their tremendous platform offering to Yahoo’s advertisers. The combination builds positive momentum for Yahoo’s broader display advertising business in 2015.”
“We believe the next step for programmatic video advertising as an industry is to extend and standardize globally, make cross-device buying simple and measurable, and complement and integrate with TV,” said Tod Sacerdoti, BrightRoll CEO and Founder. “We are excited to join Yahoo to materially advance efforts in each of these areas. We’re still in the early innings as an industry, and together, BrightRoll and Yahoo are committed to the vision of helping grow the entire video advertising ecosystem.”
The acquisition is expected to close in Q1 2015 and BrightRoll will continue to offer its current set of products and services. However, a statement confirmed that additional investment and global support, BrightRoll’s platform and advertising solutions will continue to improve and expand. BrightRoll will retain their talented team of approximately 400 employees, all of whom will remain completely focused on digital video advertising.
