Altice USA and Entravision Communications have each made strategic acquisitions of data-based programmatic advertising companies.
On Thursday, Altice announced plans to acquire Audience Partners. Deal terms were not disclosed.
“By acquiring Audience Partners, Altice USA aims to build the most innovative, data rich and intelligent advertising platform, offering our advertising and MVPD clients the ability to implement multiscreen addressability and advanced analytics,” said Dexter Goei, chairman and CEO of Altice USA, in a statement. “We are very pleased to welcome Audience Partners to the Altice USA family.”
“This is an extraordinary moment for Audience Partners as we join Altice USA,” said Jeff Dittus, chairman and CEO of Audience Partners, in a statement. “We look forward to working with Dexter and the team to combine Altice USA’s expertise in addressable television with our unique addressable digital solutions to meet the evolving needs of all of our clients across all platforms.”
On Friday, U.S. Latino-focused media company Entravision announced it’s acquiring Headway, a mobile, programmatic, data and performance digital marketing company.
“The Headway acquisition represents an important milestone for Entravision,” said Esteban Lopez Blanco, Entravision’s chief strategy officer, in a statement. “This transaction will provide synergies with our more than 300 local and national transmedia sales team members in the U.S., and the Latin America region. It brings huge opportunities as digital ad spend, e-commerce, internet and smartphone penetration will continue to grow at accelerated rates for many years as compared to the U.S. market."
"This transaction will accelerate our digital innovation and growth by providing new products and markets while broadening our scale. We will also be increasing our proprietary data assets for Latinos with the merger of Pulpo data and Headway’s DataXpand DMP," he added. "Finally, and very importantly, the acquisition of Headway helps Entravision dramatically expand its programmatic marketing capabilities via Headway's strong relationship with MediaMath. As the top global tech company for marketers, MediaMath combines advanced marketing software with global reach and scale. Headway and MediaMath's clients include the top agency holding companies and brands across Latin America.”
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For both companies, the acquisitions come at a time when programmatic ad buying is poised to increase. Spending on targeted ads in local video will grow by $5 billion to $37.6 billion in 2021, according to a forecast from BIA/Kelsey.
“The innovation being displayed in local TV and programmatic is becoming more widespread,” said Rick Ducey, managing director of BIA/Kelsey, in a statement. “Our latest research reveals the landscape of programmatic players is growing more complex as companies offer more cross-platform and cross-functional solutions. These developments are being supported by new alliances and partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, and sophisticated product roadmaps. When you step back and examine the possibilities, any movement of local TV toward programmatic buying and selling will significantly impact the amount of spending and could win more spending that might have gone to digital.”