Since its filing for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year, buy-side advertising platform Sizmek has been selling off parts of its business, from its demand-side platform to ad-tech serving technology. The latest asset to be sold is its contextual bidding technology Peer39, which has been acquired by a group of ad tech veteran as of today (August 2).
The acquisition will see Peer39 become an independent company, with Mario Diez, most recently of PointRoll and who oversaw the acquisition, take the helm as CEO. Alex White, who led Peer39’s product and account team, will serve as COO.
The Peer39 acquisition has been in negotiations alongside and completely separate from Amazon’s recent purchase of Sizmek’s ad server and DCO product, which was announced on May 31.
With the US advertising revenues surpassing $100 billion in 2018 and data privacy at the top of the news agenda, Peer39 will uniquely deliver highly contextual and personalised advertising without compromising users’ personal data. Particularly in a period amid regulatory and technology shifts in the industry, contextual data is vital for advertisers and agencies looking to leverage programmatic media buying. This segment of the data market is likely to grow steadily in the coming years, and companies like Peer39 are well-positioned to capitalise on that increased interest.
“For years, those of us who have been selling different kinds of targeting and creative, especially in programmatic, have regarded Peer39 as an underutilised asset with a ton of potential,” said Diez; “Contextual targeting is what advertising media has always been designed around, capitalising on users’ self-selected, contextual interest, and less on their profile or behaviour.”
Peer39 will continue providing the intelligence that helps advertisers understand, target, and safely deliver advertising with the highest levels of contextual relevance. The company is committed to continuing the great relationships it maintained with brands, agencies and tech platforms, and will look to serve as a vital component of a thriving, independent advertising technology ecosystem.