Roku Bolsters Its Strongest Business With a $150 Million Acquisition

Roku (NASDAQ: ROKU) on Tuesday announced its intent to buy DataXu, a demand-side platform that lets marketers buy over-the-top (OTT) video ad campaigns via automated bids, for $150 million in cash and stock. The deal was approved by the boards of both companies and is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

In a statement, Roku CEO Anthony Wood said, "TV advertising is shifting toward OTT and a data-driven model focused on business outcomes for brands," and that the acquisition of DataXu would "accelerate our ad platform while also helping our content partners monetize their inventory even more effectively."

Roku states that the integration of DataXu into its own ad platform will offer marketers a "single, data-driven software solution to plan, buy, and optimize their ad spend across TV and OTT providers." Roku also notes that OTT platforms account for 29% of TV viewing, according to Magna Global, but only capture about 3% of TV ad budgets, which indicates that the oft-overlooked market has plenty of room to grow.

Continue reading

Source Fool.com