AT&T announced the acquisition of AppNexus, a technology company targeting digital advertising – serving publishers, agencies and marketers.
Last week, AT&T announced the completion of its $85 billion deal to buy media company Time Warner despite opposition from US president Donald Trump. AppNexus is the second acquisition in months to build its media and advertising business to take on companies such as Amazon, Facebook, among others.
Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and chief executive officer, earlier said the wireless operator can scale its TV advertising business. DIRECTV and U-verse already represent a nearly $1.8 billion annual revenue run rate, growing in the double digits.
AT&T is generating yields 3-5x higher than the industry average by using its D2C data of more than 170 million customers across wireless, video and broadband. With the addition of Turner, AT&T adds inventory 3X its existing inventory, which gives the company scale to invest and even pursue M&A — Randall Stephenson said hinting at buying opportunities in advertising technology space.
The acquisition of AppNexus will support AT&T to accelerate the growth of its advertising platform and strengthen its position in TV advertising. AT&T advertising & analytics aims to deliver better advertising platform to brands and publishers with the acquisition of AppNexus.
AppNexus has more than 400 software engineers and product managers with expertise in machine learning and predictive analytics, advertising technology and video. Brian O’Kelley is the CEO of AppNexus.
“Ad tech unites real-time analytics and technology with our premium TV and video content. AppNexus has scale of infrastructure, technology and diverse talent,” AT&T advertising & analytics CEO Brian Lesser.
AT&T will invest to build on AppNexus’ technology as it integrates with AT&T’s first-party data, premium video content and distribution. AT&T has more than 170 million direct to consumer relationships across its wireless, video and broadband businesses. AppNexus also extends AT&T advertising and analytics’ footprint globally, expanding into Asia-Pacific, Australia, Europe, and Latin America.
AT&T will integrate the AppNexus platform across AT&T advertising & analytics to bring new capabilities to market to improve the value of AT&T’s ad-supported premium video content portfolio including Turner Networks, Audience Network, and Otter Media.
High-speed network is the foundation of AT&T’s video and advertisement business. AT&T’s LTE and 5G networks will deliver premium content to whatever screen the customer demands at the lowest cost per megabyte possible. This can include delivering content to homes, mobile devices and cars.
AT&T, which is struggling to add more wireless customers competing with Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint, is making investment in wireless to build, fiber and 5G to deliver better viewing experience as demand continues to grow for 4K video and virtual and augmented reality.
