Taptica acquires RhythmOne to bulk up programmatic video ad capabilities, increase focus on CTV

Ad tech provider Taptica announced Monday that it will scoop up cross-channel solutions provider RhythmOne for $176 million, rounding out its programmatic offerings for video advertisers.

Building on its purchase of Tremor Video DSP in August 2017, and RhythmOne’s own acquisition of video and CTV inventory provider YuMe in early 2018, Taptica’s expanded offering should provide advertisers with a more transparent buying experience.

Tremor CEO Ofer Druker will serve as CEO of the entire group and said the unified firm would be, “a robust and powerful video company that will be able to offer a variety of advanced capabilities to our clients.” Druker added that RhythmOne will also contribute its media exchange capabilities through its Private Marketplace (PMP).

Why you should care

U.S. advertisers spent nearly $48 billion on programmatic advertising in 2018, according to eMarketer. But despite its incredible growth, some marketers remain concerned about brand safety, malicious activity, poor quality data and a lack of transparency. And as CTV advertising continues to scale, it’s not without its own hiccups. Solutions such as the one that Taptica is assembling provide deeper transparency into the programmatic ad buying process.

“There has been a gap in the market – when it comes to programmatic video, marketers need a specialized solution that connects the dots between the buy- and sell-side[s] to reduce costs and increase efficiency,” Druker said. “This is one of the things that has been holding advertisers back from committing spend to CTV. While CTV has gone mainstream, the industry is seeing the same phenomenon that happened with mobile adoption: Ad spend lags behind consumption.”

“The combination of RhythmOne and Tremor Video DSP aims to unlock advertiser demand in this area and will deliver a complete ecosystem to serve marketers effectively – strong audiences, verification and fraud tools, engagement, connecting data with smart creative and more,” Druker said.

More about the acquisition

• The all-stock deal is expected to close in early April.
• More than 4,000 digital publishers and 500 brands currently work with RhythmOne.