Magnite said it acquired SpringServe, an ad serving platform for connected TV, for $31 million.
Magnite had a $2 million investment in SpringServe that it acquired when it bought SpotX in April.
Acquiring SpringServe gives Magnite additional capabilities in the fast-growing connected TV market.
The deal also continues a pattern of consolidation in the ad-tech business, with numerous companies choosing either to be acquired or go public.
SpringServe’s technology handles ad serving for programmatic buyer, improves inventory management and can reduce costs. Its clients include Pluto TV, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Univision and Vizio.
“The addition of SpringServe will better position Magnite to meet the needs of leading CTV publishers, no matter where they are in the evolution of their sales channel strategy,” said Michael Barrett, CEO of Magnite. “If CTV publishers want to be fully programmatic, they can leverage our CTV SSP, and if they’re in the early stages of programmatic, the SpringServe ad server will allow them to go at their own pace and customize their prioritization of direct-sold and programmatic demand. Additionally, our hybrid solution enables programmatic demand to compete with the publisher’s direct-sold demand and optimize yield automatically.”
SpringServe was founded in 2015. Following the acquisition, SpringServe CEO Joseph Hirsch will report to Magnite’s CRO for CTV Sean Buckley.
“We’re excited to be joining Magnite and building upon their existing CTV capabilities to better help publishers manage and monetize their advertising while accounting for all the specificities that are unique to this medium,” said Joseph Hirsch, former CEO of SpringServe, now GM, SpringServe for Magnite.“We look forward to collaborating with the Magnite team and their clients on product development and new features that will ultimately move the CTV advertising industry forward.”
Magnite secured statements of support for the merger from some of its clients.
“It’s great to see Magnite expand its investment in CTV solutions,” said Christo Owen, VP of digital platforms at ViacomCBS. “We’re excited to see how the addition of SpringServe will bring greater efficiencies to the industry, and greater value to CTV media owners.”
“Sinclair, NewsOn and CompulseOTT have enjoyed our partnership with both SpringServe and SpotX (now part of Magnite),” said Brian Hunt, head of OTT/CTV advertising sales, Sinclair Broadcast Group. “We look forward to the continued investment by the combined company in developing solutions to monetize programmatic revenue.”
“SpringServe has built a strong technology business that brought up the quality of advertising for its customers and the CTV industry on the whole,” said Travis Hockersmith, VP at Vizio’s Platform Plus.
