Pioneering DSP MediaMath Files for Bankruptcy

US-based ad tech firm MediaMath has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a Delaware district court, with 300 redundancies resulting and more than $100m owed to creditors.

According to reports, emails were sent to the DSP's employees and partners on Friday to say it would shut down operations in the coming months. MediaMath owes more than $1m each to some 21 ad tech firms, with Magnite and PubMatic topping the list ($12.6m and $10.5m respectively), and names such as Xandr, LiveRamp, Google and Double Verify, Unruly and Eyeota also included.

Analysts say the highly-funded firm, which nine years ago was expanding with new offices all around the globe, missed a number of potential sales, bet on trends that didn't materialise and last year restructured with calamitous consequences, selling a controlling stake to private equity group Searchlight Capital in exchange for $150m in new capital and debt refinancing.

The Chapter 11 status means part of the business might still be put up for sale as auditors attempt to recoup money for creditors.

Reports suggest the firm had recently been in talks with potential buyers including Viant Technology, Verve Group and MGI, but no deal had been agreed.

Founded in 2007 by Joe Zawadzki, Erich Wasserman and Greg Williams, the pioneering company was a founder member of the Council for Accountable Advertising in 2011 and the Partnership for Responsible Addressable Media nine years later, and is online at www.mediamath.com .