Yahoo tackles video advertising with BrightRoll purchase
A hot market in technology mergers is video ad services, which act as intermediaries between advertisers and publishers. With Yahoo's latest purchase of BrightRoll, one such company, the deal puts a price tag on the rising value of startups that help content hosts capitalize on ad revenue. Just the same, the services provide an easy interface for advertisers to deliver their ads to broad audiences across platforms.
Yahoo bought BrightRoll for around $640 million, Reuters reported earlier this month. Yahoo CEO Marisa Mayer came aboard the company in 2012 and has presided over some big-ticket purchase, most notably the acquisition of Tumblr for $1.1 billion in May of last year. She has also introduced some controversial corporate culture changes, most notably rewriting limits for working from home. BrightRoll marks one of 18 mergers Yahoo has executed this year, with others in the area of mobile marketing, ad security and video advertising.
Since Mayer's appointment, Yahoo has attempted to revise its image problem as a dated search engine and email server used primarily by older people. With the advent of companies like Google and Amazon, Yahoo has aimed to find its niche in innovation.
"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 Mayer in a statement. "As with every acquisition, we have been extremely thoughtful about our approach to the video advertising space."
Mayer further noted that she hopes the acquisition will help both companies grow, with Yahoo expanding BrightRoll's viewer reach and BrightRoll offering Yahoo's advertisers a new, streamlined platform to present material.