Yahoo is planning another acquisition, and specifically it is reportedly targeting BrightRoll, which is a cross-platform digital video advertising service, after it has already made several in this direction.
TechCrunch reports that while the deal has not yet been made public, terms have already been signed. If the deal goes through, the price tag for BrightRoll is likely to be between $500 million (€390 million) and $1 billion (€780 million), although it seems like the more likely price is $700-725 million (€546-565 million).
Over the past two years, Yahoo has spent a lot of money on investments that have yielded very little return. Notably, its $1.1 billion (858 million euros) investment in Tumblr has not yet paid off, although this is a long-term bet rather than an investment with an immediate return.
BrightRoll, which is an online platform that runs on mobile devices and online TVs, acts as a “middleman” for advertisers and publishers and competes with similar services from Google and YouTube. The platform allows advertisers to plan, target, optimize and track ad campaigns.
Overall, BrightRoll is one of the largest platforms of its kind. ComScore estimates it is the number one service in ads served and with the largest number of video viewers, according to data from June 2014.
