The Rubicon Project announced today it will IPO on the NYSE under the ticker RUBI. It will initially offer 6.8 million shares at a price of $15 to the public.

The IPO comes after speculation that the Californian-based ad tech specialist would IPO in the first quarter of this year. Positioning will be everything for Rubicon Project as it seeks to raise capital for further expansion and possible acquisitions.

The response for ad tech IPOs has been mixed from the public markets with the likes of Criteo and Rocketfuel faring a lot better than pure play ad networks such as Tremor and YuMe.

It would seem that the public markets remain confused about the value of ad tech companies so this could work in Rubicon's favour. But they will need to demonstrate that they can take a large chunk of the growing programmatic market.

Can they remain on the publisher side or will they have to go the way of AppNexus and Google - and build that end-to-end proposition?

Other ad tech players will be watching this closely as they also consider IPOs for this year. Rumours abound that Turn will go public in the second quarter of this year, closely followed by a raft of DSP players.

The question is can all these loss-making companies with a very narrow focus in a crowded market actually survive as public companies? Will there be enough revenue to satisfy Wall Street's short horizon view?

The IPO it would seem is the only way for investors to realise returns on their investments in ad tech, given that traditional acquirers are reigning in their M&A activity in the space.

The Rubicon Project IPO release in full:

The Rubicon Project, Inc. (NYSE: RUBI) today announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 6,770,995 shares of common stock at a price to the public of $15.00 per share. Rubicon Project is offering 5,416,796 shares of common stock and the selling stockholders named in the prospectus are offering 1,354,199 shares of common stock. Rubicon Project will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the selling stockholders. In addition, Rubicon Project has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,015,649 shares of common stock to cover over-allotments, if any. The shares are expected to begin trading on April 2, 2014 on The New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “RUBI.” The closing of the offering is expected to occur on April 7, 2014, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Goldman, Sachs & Co. and RBC Capital Markets, LLC are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering. Needham & Company, LLC, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., and LUMA Securities LLC are acting as co-managers for the offering.

The offer is being made only by means of a prospectus. Copies of the final prospectus may be obtained from: Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, 180 Varick Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10014, Attention: Prospectus Department; from Goldman, Sachs & Co., Attention: Prospectus Department, 200 West Street, New York, NY 10282; or from RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, 3 World Financial Center, 200 Vesey Street, 8th Floor, New York, New York 10281-8098.

A registration statement relating to shares of the common stock of Rubicon Project was declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 1, 2014. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor may there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.