Criteo to Buy IPONWEB to Fuel First-Party Data Plan

Ad targeting and retargeting specialist Criteo is to acquire programmatic ad tech firm IPONWEB for $380m in a combination of cash and shares. Criteo says the deal allows it to position itself as the 'commerce media partner of choice for the post third-party cookie and identifier world'.

Founded in 2000 by Boris Mouzykantskii (pictured), IPONWEB offers an ad exchange, programmatic and digital ad platform across digital, TV, DOOH (digital out of home) and audio. Its technology is used to develop enterprise solutions for media owners, agencies and marketers, and provide media trading infrastructure for the AdTech industry. In addition, the company's proprietary U-Predict offers machine learning prediction and probability modelling; and its U-Slicer tool is used for big data analytics, modelling and investigations.

With this planned acquisition, Criteo says it will expand its own commerce media platform strategy, using DSP (demand-side platform) and SSP (supply-side platform) solutions, including giving media owners much larger scale data on media spend, and first-party data access for audience targeting.

Criteo CEO Megan Clarken comments: 'This is a defining moment in Criteo's transformation to drive sustainable growth and revenue diversification, creating value for all stakeholders from day one. Criteo's customers would benefit from enhanced full-funnel capabilities with even more flexible self-service tools, while continuing to leverage Criteo's unique commerce data for targeting, measurement and superior outcomes'.

Web sites: www.criteo.com and www.iponweb.com .