Facebook to acquire video advertising platform LiveRail for $500 million

15:51, 3 July, 2014

YEREVAN, JULY 3, ARMENPRESS. Facebook plans to acquire LiveRail, a supply-side advertising platform for video content. LiveRail will help Facebook make video ads “better and more relevant” for viewers and publishers, informs “Armenpress”, referring to AdWeek. LiveRail boasts a number of top clients, including MLB.com, Condé Nast Digital, CBS Interactive, ABC Family and Univision. Facebook officially rolled out premium video ads in March, following limited tests late last year. In May, the company expanded those ads internationally to Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the UK.  

Facebook Inc. bought video advertising company LiveRail to help it target and distribute video ads, AdWeek reported. TechCrunch pegged the price tag between $400 million and $500 million, although the companies haven’t disclosed the terms.

LiveRail, based in San Francisco, has created a network that runs digital advertising on the Web and apps for companies like Major League Basball, Dailymotion and cable companies including A&E Networks and ABC. Its technology helps publishers target video ads to specific customers and connects marketers with open ad inventory at various sites with a real-time bidding platform.

Not unlike Google Adwords, the technology also predicts inventory fluctuations that help buyers plan campaigns and estimate costs.

LiveRail's cofounders laid out the vision behind their company: “We believed that over the coming years, television would increasingly move to the Internet, and that both broadcasters and advertisers would follow viewers into this new digital TV age.

The company, founded in 2007, is the world’s largest programmatic platform for video publishers, with 170 employees in four offices.

TechCrunch reported in 2013 that LiveRail could hit $100 million in revenue that year and was mulling an IPO in 2014. The company has raised $12 million, mostly from Europe-based Pond Ventures, according to its Crunchbase profile.

Facebook VP of Ads Product Marketing and Atlas Brian Boland said in a blog post, "We believe that LiveRail, Facebook and the premium publishers it serves have an opportunity to make video ads better and more relevant for the hundreds of millions of people who watch digital video every month."


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