Adobe Acquires TubeMogul in Landmark Deal for Programmatic Video Industry

TubeMogul, a platform for buying and measuring video advertising, has been acquired by Adobe in a deal worth approximately $540 million.

The acquired demand-side-platform allows brands and agencies to plan and buy video advertising across desktop, streaming devices and TVs. 

These are capabilities which Adobe plans to work into its Marketing Cloud suite – already packing in search, display and social advertising – along with Adobe Primetime, which allows for the creation and monetisation of video across devices. 

The result will be what Adobe calls an “end-to-end” ad and data management platform. 

Adobe’s executive vice president & GM of digital marketing, Brad Rencher, said the move was spurred by an ‘explosion’ of video consumption across devices. 

“With the acquisition of TubeMogul, Adobe will give customers a ‘one-stop shop’ for video advertising, providing even more strategic value for our Adobe Marketing Cloud customers.”

‘Great move’

The transition is made all the more slick with Adobe and TubeMogul sharing a long list of joint customers, including Allstate Johnson & Johnson, Kraft, Liberty Mutual, L’Oréal, Nickelodeon and Southwest Airlines.

Brett Wilson, CEO of the acquired firm, said TubeMogul was “thrilled to call Adobe home”, calling it a “great move” for clients, team and shareholders.  

Wilson also commented that the merging would allow customers to acquire, measure and optimise their global video advertising with a “neutral, independent partner” that doesn’t have direct ownership of media or content.

Since an IPO in 2014,TubeMogul has been full-stream ahead, with a strategic partnership with DailyMotion in 2015 opening up access to an extra 250 million viewers per month.

This latest purchase marks the largest in what’s been a year of acquisitions and mergers in the programmatic video space, such as the acquisition of StickyADS.tv by Comcast in May.  Automated bidding for video inventory has been estimated to account for 60% of digital video spend in the US this year, according to eMarketer, up from 39% in 2015.