Visible Measures Sold for $10m

Ad targeting firm AcuityAds Holdings Inc. has agreed to acquire Boston-based analytics specialist Visible Measures Corporation for around $10m.

AcuityAds is headquartered in Toronto, Canada with sales offices in nine other North American cities plus London, UK. The company helps clients target audiences via mobile, social media, display and video ads, and the Visible Measures buy is intended to boost its presence in the last of these, as well as giving it a strong platform for growth in the programmatic TV market.

The acquisition is the firm's second in a year - last August it bought social media and mobile targeting company 140 Proof, in a deal valued at up to $20m. The price for its latest buy is low considering the more than $70m raised by Visible Measures in eight rounds since 2006 - it had received $45m by September 2011, and added another $21.5m the following year - adding a further $7m around two and a half years ago, shortly after reports of a substantial number of job cuts. AcuityAds said combined revenue for the two firms for the calendar year 2016 (unaudited pro-forma) was in excess of $CAN 75m (currently $US 55.8m) - but did not give separate figures.

Since 2014 Visible Measures has been a regular innovator. Launches have included a '100% viewable video' solution guaranteeing the MRC and IAB viewability standard, a suite of measurement and analytics tools called True Reach Planner, a video viewing prediction tool called the Industry Forecaster, and a new metric called 'Engaged Viewing Time', to help brands and marketers assess and increase the ROI of their branded video campaigns.

According to Tal Hayek, CEO of AcuityAds, 'The addition of Visible Measures and their industry leading video analytics technology is a great fit and complement to Acuity's Self-Serve programmatic marketing platform for marketers looking to leverage a 'one-stop' shop for all their digital marketing needs'.

Visible Measures CEO Brian Shin (pictured) comments: 'Since our founding in 2005, our vision has always been to build the leading measurement and analytics platform to enable marketers to maximize the effectiveness of video advertising. It has been an amazing journey in building Visible Measures into the company that exists today with a blue-chip customer base and extensive partnerships and I am incredibly proud of the team and our accomplishments. I firmly believe that in joining AcuityAds, advertisers will gain access to the industry's most comprehensive suite of technology offerings to address their digital marketing needs more successfully'.

The transaction is expected to complete at the end of this month, subject to closing conditions and the approval of shareholders. The Boards of both firms have voted unanimously in favor. AcuityAds will finance the buy via a $US 5.5m ($CAN 7.5m) share offering, and a new $US 10m Revolving Line of Credit with Silicon Valley Bank.

The firms are online at www.visiblemeasures.com and www.acuityads.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.