ComScore said it is buying ad verifier AdXpose for $22 million, mostly in stock, a deal that is a small step toward consolidating a fragmented ad technology industry.
AdXpose competed with other ad-verifiers like DoubleVerify, its larger competitor. DoubleVerify recently closed a $3 million funding round. With doubts that ad vertification would continue for long as a standalone category, DoubleVerify is positioning itself as a broader play at optimizing ad campaigns.
“In order for the advertising space to succeed long term, we have to provide insights that the right advertising is getting to right people at right context at the right time and at the right frequency,” said Linda Abraham, CMO of ComScore.
The move also removes another logo from the Luma Partners chart, which lists over 200 providers. There has long been calls for consolidation of the increasingly complex display ad landscape. Hundreds of companies are off solving one part of the problem, creating not only lots of innovation but also lots of headaches with advertisers and agencies cobbling together various products.
It’s a real problem, acknowledged Kirby Winfield, CEO of AdXpose. He said the ad verifier could now plug into ComScore’s large sales force. It would also enable it to standardize with Comscore data systems. Advertisers and agencies often complain about having to reconcile data from various providers that all present it in their own way.
“We’ve had a lot of folks talk about tag weariness and going to too many vendors to get information to piece them together,” he said.
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