sizmek

Shopify checkout might be coming to ChatGPT; private equity builds a French ad tech stack; and how Meta turning off news in Canada is affecting news access ahead of this month’s election.

In today’s newsletter: Can Etsy and Wayfair compete against Temu?; audience data dominates the TV upfronts; the FTC sues to block the Kroger/Albertsons deal.

According to emails seen by AdExchanger that were sent to Amazon customers this week, Amazon is officially naming integration partners to offload clients of the Sizmek ad suite, now the Amazon Ad Server.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Amazon Prime(s) Its SSP Play Based on its job listings, Amazon is getting ready to launch a supply-side platform. The company has 11 open job listings on a “PubTech team” tasked with building “the new Amazon Ads Supply Side Platform,” Insider reports. The […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Pubs Crawl Publishers are more selective about ad tech vendors nowadays after suffering through incidents involving sequential liability, Digiday reports. Publishers are more discerning about ad tech but don’t expect much to change following the MediaMath bankruptcy, like the Sizmek bankruptcy before that […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Audiences Worth Waiting For Criteo announced the “next phase of its integration with Shopify,” which is an update to its Shopify App Store. It’s not news that’ll set the world on fire, but Criteo maintains a drumbeat of Shopify integrations. Criteo’s Shopify merchant […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. General Admission Dollar General is one of many retail chains to launch an ad platform business. And the Dollar General Media Network (DGMN), as it’s known, just added a new partner last week: Meta. The Meta ad platform can now attribute sales to […]

With so much reliance on third parties in all of our businesses, it is important to remain appropriately skeptical and vet each company.

Ad tech saw almost 1,500 M&As between 2020 and 2021. So is this consolidation trend here to stay? It looks like it’s a resounding yes, writes Matthew Papa, SVP of business and corporate development at Captify.

Zeta Global has hoovered up a lot of ad tech over the last two years, acquiring Sizmek’s DSP, Rocket Fuel’s DMP, IgnitionOne’s DSPand PlaceIQ’s managed media business. The spree was a departure for the 12-year-old marketing cloud, traditionally known for its CRM and data solutions. How’s the rollup strategy working out? CEO David Steinberg joins […]

The list of failed DSPs is getting long: Sizmek. IgnitionOne. Eyeview. Audience Science. Each DSP left unpaid invoices to suppliers they went bankrupt or closed, forcing exchanges to eat the losses or claw back money it already gave to publishers. Now exchanges are getting tough about getting paid. Nearly one year post-Sizmek, BidSwitch, TripleLift, PubMatic, OpenX, […]

The advertising industry today is largely the product of tremendous M&A activity. AdExchanger looked at the acquisitions that made the biggest impact in the past decade. Impact can mean many things. Some of these startups flourished under their new owners, showing worth far more than their deal price. Others, purchased during their downfall, reflect the […]

Whenever Google moves, people pay attention. Half of the 10 most-trafficked AdExchanger stories in 2019  feature Google, showing how any change Google makes ripples across the industry. Readers were also intrigued by stories of great success and … the opposite. On the former end of the spectrum was an examination of The Trade Desk’s massive […]

The Sizmek bankruptcy auction officially closed on Thursday with the announcement that Peer39, the company’s contextual targeting unit, was sold to the private equity firm O3 Industries for $18 million. The Trade Desk and Zefr, a contextual targeting company primarily for YouTube, also submitted bids for the final Peer39 auction last week, according to sources […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Without Peer Sizmek offloaded its contextual advertising company Peer39 to private equity firm O3 Industries for $18 million, Business Insider’s Lauren Johnson reports. O3 reportedly beat out other bidders including The Trade Desk and Zefr. So what’s the future of Peer39? Mario Diez, whose […]

One week after Amazon reached a “definitive agreement” to buy the Sizmek ad server and DCO tech, the French ad tech company Weborama is trying Friday to re-open the process with a press release and what it claims is a larger offer. FTI Consulting, the financial advisory overseeing Sizmek’s bankruptcy review, emphasized its agreement with […]

When Amazon acquired Sizmek’s ad server and dynamic content optimization (DCO) businesses last week, most of the attention fell on the server. And rightly so, since the server is the meat and potatoes of the deal. But don’t sleep on the DCO solution as a potentially valuable asset for the Amazon Advertising Platform (AAP). After […]

Amazon’s acquisition of Sizmek’s ad server and dynamic creative optimization (DCO) platform Friday puts it in a better position to compete with Google for advertiser budgets. Amazon will likely gain new clients from Sizmek who don’t want to deal with switching ad servers, as well as some advertisers who don’t like the idea of working […]

Updated at 11:50 EDT Amazon announced on Friday that it will buy Sizmek’s ad server business and dynamic content optimization (DCO) solution, following a two-month sales review since Sizmek declared bankruptcy in March. The deal would give Amazon the second-largest ad server footprint, trailing Google, and has important implications for Amazon’s advertising ambitions and the […]

Sizmek will sell its data management platform, which it acquired with Rocket Fuel, and its demand-side platform to the marketing technology cloud Zeta Global on Friday in a deal worth up to $36 million. If the deal is approved, Zeta will pay $5 million in stock and $10 million in cash, with another $20 million […]

One of the most pressing concerns from Sizmek’s bankruptcy comes from SSPs, which must reconsider how they think about risk and credit with their longtime partners. Brands and agencies often pay DSPs on 90-day or even 120-day cycles. But DSPs pay SSPs between 30 to 60 days. There’s a separate contract between an SSP and […]

Sizmek regained access to its cash this week after Cerberus, the investment firm that owns Sizmek’s debt and now owns its equity, seized its holdings and pushed the company into bankruptcy last Friday. Sizmek has resumed business operations and is covering payroll and employee benefits, after missing the previous pay period. The next two to […]

“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media. Today’s column is written by Nico Neumann, assistant professor and fellow, Centre for Business Analytics at Melbourne Business School. Nico will present “How The Wrong Audience Targeting And AI-Driven Campaigns Undermine Brand Growth” at AdExchanger’s upcoming […]

Story has been edited to include Sizmek’s response. While Sizmek’s future will play out over the next couple of months, there are more pressing concerns about the company’s payroll and whether it will be able to resume normal business operations. Chapter 11 bankruptcy isn’t necessarily the end for Sizmek’s business – it’s the kind of […]

Sizmek filed for bankruptcy Friday night, ending the private equity-backed effort to integrate Sizmek and Rocket Fuel into a cohesive buy-side tech stack, and possibly ending the Sizmek brand. Sizmek’s bankruptcy filing estimates its assets between $100 million and $500 million. Though its liabilities are in the same range. Sizmek’s four largest outstanding debts are […]

Sizmek needs another investment round after facing setbacks and revenue shortfalls in 2018, and it won’t find new funding with Vector Capital, the firm that backed the acquisitions and integration of Sizmek and Rocket Fuel. Sizmek is working with Cerberus Capital Management, the PE firm that financed the debt on Vector’s deal for Rocket Fuel […]

“The Sell Sider” is a column written for the sell side of the digital media community.  Today’s column is written by Joshua Koran, managing director, DMP, at Sizmek. With the passage of California’s new Consumer Privacy Act, there is increasing attention to how data is collected, processed and sold online. Unfortunately, as with the General […]

Many in the ad tech industry view demand-side platforms (DSPs) as commodities. Sizmek is hoping to prove otherwise, as it took the wraps off a revamped buying platform Tuesday. Made from the old Rocket Fuel DSP, the new offering, according to Sizmek CEO Mark Grether, has a more streamlined user interface than its previous iteration, […]

Less than two years after Vector Capital sealed its $122 million deal to acquire Sizmek, the private equity firm is already looking to divest. Multiple sources with direct knowledge told AdExchanger that Vector has been shopping Sizmek, possibly as early as April, and just a year and a half after the deal closed. Vector denied […]

In late April, Google said it would limit the portability of the DoubleClick ID outside of its ad server DoubleClick Campaign Manager (DCM), effectively killing independent attribution (at least to the extent that it was possible). Marketers who want access to the DoubleClick ID, which ties together data across Google’s properties, will have to use it […]