Outbrain, a content recommendation company, has agreed to aquire Teads, the Altice-owned video advertising business, in a deal valued around $1 billion.
Outbrain uses AI to drive content recommendations and performance on the open web. But merging with Teads grants the company access to TV and video publishers, thereby tapping into the growing CTV market. Teads providers publishers a range of ad formats, most notably its outstream video, alongside creative optimisation and interactive features for CTV.
The combined company is expected to generate more than $1.7 billion in ad spend this year, with the transaction expected to close in the first quarter of 2025, subject to approvals.
The two companies said the acquisition will create one of largest advertising platforms for the open internet, mobile and CTV, bringing together 20,000 direct advertisers with a base of 10,000 premium media environments. The combined platform will cover over 50 markets, according to the firms, reaching more than two billion consumers per month.
“A transformative transaction”
The deal comprises $725 million upfront cash and $25 million deferred cash, 35 million shares of common stock in Outbrain, and $105 million of convertible preferred equity. Outbrain CEO David Kostman will continue as CEO of the merged entity, with Teads Co-CEOs, Bertrand Quesada and Jeremy Arditi, serving as Co-Presidents.
“This is a transformative transaction to establish a true end-to-end, full-funnel platform for the open internet,” said Outbrain’s David Kostman. “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.”
“This strategic combination presents vast new opportunities for the advertising industry at large,” added Teads’ Bertrand Quesada. “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.”
In search of premium
Altice has been looking to sell Teads for the past year, after withdrawing its plans to take the company public in 2021. Altice was then expected to offload most of its media assets after accruing €60 billion in debt, and facing a fraud investigation in Portugal. In October 2023, reports suggested the telco was seeking around €3 billion for the French ad tech firm. But the $1 billion price tag still exceeds the $307 million Altice paid for Teads in 2017.
For Outbrain, the acquisition represents the opportunity to expand into more premium environments, particularly CTV, seeking to work with more upper-funnel advertisers. The company’s stock has slid more than 7o percent since going public in 2021, and abandoned a proposed merger with rival firm Taboola in back in 2020.
“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,” said Teads’ Jeremy Arditi. “Having known the Outbrain team for a decade, we know we’re creating an amazing combined company focused on innovation and excellence.”
