ExchangeWire rounds up some of the top stories in the European ad tech scene, and in this week’s edition: AppNexus continues shopping spree; Group M digital chief speaks programmatic with ExchangeWire; Mobile operators to block ads to get in on the ad game, and much more. 

AppNexus buys MediaGlu

AppNexus has topped a monumental 2014 for the company with the purchase of cross-screen advertising firm MediaGlu for an undisclosed fee, in a year when advertisers stopped thinking about mobile in a siloed manner, and the ad tech firm inches towards a 2015 IPO.

Details of the deal have yet to be confirmed by the industry's largest ad tech firm, but early reports on the transaction mean the deal will have meant that AppNexus has spent over $200m in three separate acquisitions this year alone.

MediaGlu uses "Proprietary algorithm creates accurate user-level matches using billions of programmatic data points and advanced machine learning. this allows us to go beyond householding and enable true cross device insights and attribution", to aid advertisers when it comes to attribution, according to the firm. 

The purchase tops AppNexus' acquisition of French viewability firm Alenty in June this year, and the later purchase of Open AdStream from Xaxis in September, in a contra deal that also saw WPP invest $25m in the ad tech outfit.

All this followed the ad tech outfit raising $100m in Series E funding in a deal that valued the firm at $1.2bn, and AppNexus is widely expected to list next year.

Speaking about the prospect of listing publicly with ExchangeWire earlier this year, Brian O'Kelley, AppNexus, CEO, said: "“I feel that a lot of the markets don’t get ad tech, so when there’s a bump in the road, (which is inevitable when the industry is evolving this rapidly) they overreact.

“In the last five years or so, you start to see a lot of companies such as Facebook take their time over things and then going public when they’re good and ready."

Meanwhile, the purchase of cross-screen advertising firm MediaGlu comes the same week as ExchangeWire published an article noting how ad tech firms honed their sites on addressing the issue of cross-screen campaigns in 2014. Facebook's relaunch of Atlas made this a significant talking point earlier in the year, plus the emergence of companies such as DrawBridge made this one of the talking points of 2014.

In the piece, Steve Hobbs, Amnet, managing director, UK, said: "You need things like universal ID, and Facebook with Atlas. What’s good about the Drawbridge model is that it uses probabilistic modelling [to determine a user ID for targeting], as opposed to Facebook’s deterministic model [which employs a user's log-in to track them across screens]."

Group M digital chief speaks to ExhcangeWire

Rob Norman, Group M, chief digital officer, spoke with ExchangeWire's Wendy Hogan about how much of a priority automated trading is within the WPP outfit, how Xaxis is not an 'agency trading desk', the industry reverting back towards walled gardens, and Google.

In the piece, he says: "The proportion of media that is digital is increasing, therefore the proportion of automated trading is also increasing."

Discussing how Group M and Xaxis collaborate he added: "Xaxis negotiates for inventory in the marketplace and combines that inventory with data to create media products that serve client and campaign needs."

Speaking about the trend towards walled gardens, he went on to say: "The data structures we’re building within Group M are a system on top of all these walled gardens and we’re fairly well advanced in that, pending of course the client’s comfort to share data within GroupM’s systems."

Mobile operators prepare fightback in the ad game

Mobile operators have dominated the headlines in the mainstream business press this week prompted by the pending BT takeover of EE, or maybe O2, but ExchangeWire looked at mobile operators' attempts to get back in the ad game, focusing on the activities of Shine Technologies.

The basic proposal of Shine Technologies is to offer operators a platform that enables them to monitor traffic on their networks, and calculate how much revenue is generated by ad tech players, and even offers the ability to block said ads.

"We set out to figure out the volume of bandwidth, as well as the actual clicks and impressions that take place, our guys went the extra step and figured out a way to provide a ‘dollar’ value to the worth of monetisation going through a carrier’s pipes," according to a company spokesman.

Various high-profile moves to muscle-in on the mobile advertising industry have been made this year, and this offers mobile operators the ability to demand a slice of the revenue generated by the likes of Facebook and Google (who currently dominate 75% of the sector that is estimated to hit $73bn by 2018).

When asked about the potential ramifications of this with regards to legal challenges by ad tech firms, and those concerned over net neutrality, the spokesperson said: “We’ve done our homework, and the carriers we’re working with are doing theirs. If there was a legal problem, we wouldn’t be where we are.”

Read more here on the prospect of operators becoming "bright pipes".

$200m True[X] acquisition backs research showing appetite for video

This week it was revealed that 21 Century Fox bought video ad platform True[X] for a reported $200m backing research showing that programmatic video companies topped the shopping list from some of the industry's leading media firms.

Closing of the transaction is subject to the completion of a definitive agreement and other customary closing conditions.

True[x] offers online publishers and advertisers a marketing platform for premium content in digital and on-demand environments, and its clients include Apple, Coca-Cola, Disney and Nestle.

As part of the acquisition, True[X] will work closely with Fox Networks Group to drive engagement between brands and consumers on Fox’s proprietary digital platforms.

This came the same week as ExchangeWire published research from AGC Partners revealing that M&A deals in the ad tech  in 2014 were worth double that of the previous year, according to a report from investment advisory firm AGC Partners, with demand for video and data management platforms (DMP) driving growth in the sector.

 The report – entitled AdTech M&A in 2014 and Beyond: Trends and Drivers in an Evolving Landscape – claims the growth in investment in the ad tech sector has been driven by a 36% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in programmatic ad spend (citing figures from IDC Group), plus the growth in mobile advertising, which is set to hit $73bn by 2018, according to Magna Global.

The report reads: “Video deal activity jumped from seven transactions in all of 2013 to 14 in 1H, 2014 alone."

It goes on to note how notable transactions in this sector including Facebook’s acquisition of LiveRail for $382m and Opera MediaWorks’ acquisition of AdColony for $75m, not to mention the $640m purchase of BrightRoll by Yahoo, or the purchase of Videoplaza by Australia’s Telstra this last quarter.

Read here for a further in-depth analysis of the trend.

Survey shows rising tide of consumer awareness over data

A survey from the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliace (EDAA) and Truste published this week shows that consumer awareness of the online AdChoices icon doubled between 2012 and 2014, as consumer awareness over their online privacy continues to ramp-up.

The study was conducted by Ipsos MORI, on behalf of TRUSTe and the EDAA from 21 October – 10 November 2014 with over 10,000 respondents across 10 different European countries, across Europe.

The results show that awareness of the icon continues to rise in Great Britain with awareness increasing from 13% (2012) to 22% (2013) to 26% (2014) over the last two years, and that consumer awareness of the icon is highest in Greece (39%) where the most recent consumer awareness campaign took place.

It also found that 1 in 25 respondents aged between 18-50 in the ten markets surveyed said they have visited the www.youronlinechoices.eu website.

Nick Stringer, EDAA chair and director of regulatory affairs at IAB UK, said:“The findings of the 2014 European Advertising Consumer Research Index demonstrate how the EU industry initiative is helping to empower consumers with greater transparency and control over their online behavioural advertising preferences.”

Click here for a full version of the report.