Snap Inc. Shares Closed Above $24; Amazon Bets Big On Search

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Snap, Crackle, Pop

Snap Inc. shares closed above $24 after its public market debut, but skepticism is in the air. Unlike Facebook, Twitter and Google, Snap doesn’t have a concrete story to tell about its business plans post-IPO, writes Peter Kafka of Recode, likening its strategy to “the financial equivalent of the shruggy emoticon: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.” Pivotal analyst Brian Wieser sent a note to investors valuing Snap at $10 per share given significant risks from competitive platforms like Facebook, stalling user growth and the need for better measurement of its ad products. Snap is “significantly overvalued given the likely scale of its long-term opportunity and the risks associated with executing against that opportunity,” he wrote.

Dethroned?

Amazon is making a big bet on search [AdExchanger coverage], and WPP CEO Martin Sorrell foresees it giving Google a run for its money. “The threat to Google, in my view, is Amazon,” Sorrell said during a fireside at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. “It’s Amazon and search on Amazon that is potentially the biggest threat. Amazon’s tentacles are spreading rapidly into all areas.” Despite the fact that WPP spent roughly $5 billion on Google and almost $2 billion on Facebook in 2016, Sorrell isn’t a big fan of the duopoly and might welcome Amazon’s trust-busting potential. More.

MVPD Buys DSP

Addressable TV just got a DSP. Altice USA, which owns Cablevision (an addressable TV pioneer), bought the DSP Audience Partners for an undisclosed sum. Altice USA CEO Dexter Goei said the company bought the DSP in order to build out its advertising platform. Audience Partners will “[offer] our advertising and MVPD clients the ability to implement multiscreen addressability and advanced analytics,” he said in a statement. In a 2014 interview with AdExchanger, Audience Partners said it raised capital conservatively and made a profit on its eight figures of revenue. Read the release.

Latino Network Buys DSP

In another ad tech merger, Latino media network Entravision acquired ad platform Headway Digital. Entravision owns 54 television stations and 49 radio stations, and is a large affiliate of the Univision and UniMás TV networks. The release highlights Headway’s data assets, adding, “The acquisition of Headway helps Entravision dramatically expand its programmatic marketing capabilities via Headway’s strong relationship with MediaMath.” Entravision paid cash but other terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Press release.

One-To-One Targeting

It may seem strange that the National Retail Federation, a brick-and-mortar trade association, is targeting the “Fox and Friends” morning talk show and NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” with its new TV spot opposing the border adjustment tax. Except it makes perfect sense if you consider that President Trump is known to watch both shows (his regular tweets in response to the programming being a dead giveaway). “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox and the NBC morning show “Morning Joe” have already sharply increased rates for issue advocacy ads because Trump is a frequent viewer. The Washington Post has more.