Yahoo to buy BrightRoll for US$640 million

Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer

Yahoo has agreed to buy programmatic video advertising platform BrightRoll for approximately US$640 million (€514 million) in cash. 

Yahoo said that the deal will combine its own desktop and mobile video ad inventory with BrightRoll’s online video platform and publisher relationships, bringing “substantial value to advertisers on both platforms.”

Once completed, Yahoo claimed that the BrightRoll deal will make Yahoo’s video advertising platform the largest in the US, and boost its strategy – which is focused on search, communications, and digital content through growth in mobile, social, native, and video advertising.

“Here at Yahoo, video is one of the largest growth opportunities, and BrightRoll is a terrific, strategic and financially compelling fit for our video advertising business,” said Marissa Mayer, Yahoo CEO. “As with every acquisition, we have been extremely thoughtful about our approach to the video advertising space. This acquisition will accelerate the growth of both companies – we can help BrightRoll scale to even more advertisers globally and they can bring their tremendous platform offering to Yahoo’s advertisers.”

BrightRoll powers digital video advertising for some of the world’s largest brands and agencies, including 87 of the AdAge Top 100 US advertisers, and is expected to record net revenues in excess of US$100 million this year.

The deal is expected to close in Q1 2015, subject to customary closing conditions.