Yahoo to Acquire BrightRoll for $640M in Cash
In one of the year's biggest acquisitions in the online video space, Yahoo is set to acquire video advertising company BrightRoll for an all-cash payment of $640 million. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2015. In a press announcement, BrightRoll said that it would continue business as usual afterwards, offering the same line of products, but improving and expanding with Yahoo's investment and support. BrightRoll expects its net revenues to exceed $100 million this year.
In a blog post, Marissa Mayer, Yahoo's CEO, said video is the format that brand advertisers love, and is key to Yahoo. "Video, along with mobile, social, and native, represents a new format of online advertising that has the potential to help us transform and modernize Yahoo’s display business and return it to growth," Mayer wrote.
Once the acquisition is complete Yahoo expects to have the largest video advertising platform in the United State, Mayer added.
The move feels similar to AOL's acquisition of Adap.tv for $405 million in August 2013. In both cases an older online company currently reinventing itself with original online video acquires an online video ad company that emphasizes programmatic buying.
BrightRoll currently works with 87 of AdAge's Top 100 U.S. advertisers and all of the top 15 ad agencies.
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