Dish Network and AT&T have partnered with global ad agency WPP to jointly purchase Invidi Technologies Corp., which specializes in addressable advertising.
Terms of the deal, which the companies jointly announced Monday, weren’t disclosed.
Under terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the first quarter, AT&T will own a controlling stake in the Princeton, New Jersey-based company, but Invidi will continue to operate independently. Invidi also has offices in Newtown, Pennsylvania, New York, Denver, Colorado and Edmonton, Alberta, in Canada.
According to the company’s Crunchbase profile, it has been privately funded since its founding in 2000, to the tune of more than $132 million, with AT&T unit DirecTV and WPP serving as the lead funders.
Invidi ad tech lets advertisers target their commercials to specific audiences, letting, say, automakers deliver commercials only to viewers who appear, through data, to be in the market for a car or truck. In the realm of pay-TV, AT&T and Dish Network are the leaders in such addressable advertising wherewithal.
“Invidi gives us a great opportunity to expand our addressable advertising capabilities,” said Rick Welday, president of AT&T AdWorks, in a statement. “We have significantly increased revenue with targeted advertising across multiple platforms. This deal will help us accelerate growth in our addressable advertising business and explore innovation and expansion into new platforms.”
“This is an opportunity to push innovation through the platform and expand the reach of addressable TV advertising, moving the advertising industry forward for brands and consumers,” said Warren Schlichting, DISH executive vice president of Marketing, Programming and Media Sales.