News in brief: The Trade Desk to Acquire Sincera; T-Mobile Acquires Vistar Media; Elon Musk Ads Defendants to Lawsuit Against Advertisers; Elon Musk Sued over Twitter Stock Purchase

Latest Ad Tech Acquisitions

The Trade Desk plans to acquire ad tech company Sincera, reveals Digiday. The move, which will allow The Trade Desk to provide advertisers with sharper insights into the value of their impressions, will mark its second acquisition since its launch in 2009. The deal is expected to close this quarter. 

Next, T-Mobile will be acquiring ad tech firm Vistar Media which specialises in buying, selling, and managing digital out-of-home advertising campaigns. The all-cash deal closed at USD$600m (£491m). The deal will see the coming together of Vista’s tech capabilities and scale with T-Mobile’s customer data and insights. The acquisition supports T-Mobile’s ad business, as it seeks to generate revenue beyond phone and internet plans. 

Elon Musk Adds Defendants to Lawsuit Against Advertisers

Elon Musk is gearing up to add more defendants to his lawsuit against advertisers, reports Bloomberg. According to a legal filing, X wants to add “multiple legal defendants”. X said it would share a draft of its second complaint with the current defendants by 20th January and file it with the court by 25th January. First filed back in August last year, the lawsuit accuses advertisers of conspiring against him to boycott the platform. This had shortly followed advertisers leaving the platform in mass due to very valid brand-safety risks on the platform. The lawsuit centres on the Global Alliance for Responsible Media and its members, including WFA, CVS, and Twitch, among others. Unilever, who was initially named as a defendant, has been dropped from the lawsuit after having reached an agreement with X. 

US Sues Elon Musk over Twitter Stock Purchase

In more Musk-related news, the tech mogul is being sued by the US for failing to disclose his ownership of Twitter stock and later acquiring shares in the company at “artificially low prices”, consequently stifling other shareholders. The lawsuit has been filed in Federal Court by the Securities and Exchange Commission, reports The Guardian. It alleges that Musk did not disclose that he had acquired a 5% stake in the company in a timely manner, allowing him to underpay by at least USD$150m (£123m) for shares he purchased after his financial beneficial ownership report was due.