Telecoms firm AT&T has reportedly started discussions to purchase AppNexus for about $1.6bn. App Nexus is a US-based online advertising platform developer, which counts several corporate venturers among its backers, including marketing and market research group WPP, telecoms group Deutsche Telekom, software provider Microsoft and media group News Corp.
The company had filed for an initial public offering, reportedly sized at $2bn, but had not made progress on it. It is also noteworthy that AT&T seeks to buy it, after completing its $85bn merger with media group Time Warner, which has provided it with considerable access to advertising space.
Founded in 2007, AppNexus operates a range of online advertising products including a programmatic ad buying platform, a demand-side platform for ad buyers and an online marketplace where advertisers can connect to publishers. The company has raised over $364m in corporate-backed rounds to date, as the GCV Analytics chart shows. Its most recent round was a $31m one in 2016.
AppNexus forms part of the broader adtech and digital marketing space, which we have been tracking at GCV Analytics. The number of corporate-backed deals in the space has remained relatively stable over the past two years (2016-17), as the historical bar chart illustrates here.
