Equativ

Last updated
Equativ
FormerlySmart AdServer
Company typePrivate
Industry Computer software
Advertising
Founded2001
Headquarters
Paris
,
France
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Arnaud Creput
ProductsAd Server, SSP, DSP
RevenueIncrease2.svg197M€ [1]  (2021)
OwnerBridgepoint Group, Capital Croissance
Number of employees
450[ citation needed ] (2022)
Website equativ.com

Equativ (formerly known as Smart AdServer) is a French advertising technology company. Created in 2001 as part of Aufeminin, it was bought by private-equity fund Cathay Capital in 2015, [2] and then by private-equity fund Capital Croissance for a secondary LBO in 2021. [3] It operates mostly in the US, Europe, Latin America and Asia.

Contents

History

Smart AdServer (now Equativ) was created in 2001 by aufeminin.com in order to manage advertisements on the publisher's websites. It became an independent company within the same group in 2005, then expanded locally and internationally [4]

Axel Springer, the largest digital publishing house in Europe, bought AuFeminin in 2007. Following that take-over, Equativ expanded into Europe, Latin America and the United States. [5] In 2015, Axel Springer sold the company to private equity fund Cathay Capital for 37 million €. [6] In 2021 private equity fund Capital Croissance became the new majority shareholder of the company for a secondary LBO, in a bid to accelerate the development of the company in the United States and in connected TV. [7]

The company operates an adserver, an SSP and a DSP and specializes in solutions for Advanced TV and premium publishers. As of 2023, the company operates on 4 continents with a management team split between Paris, New York and London. [8]

In February 2023, Equativ is bought by Private Equity fund Bridgepoint Group, in a transaction valued "at more than €300m". [9]

Acquisitions

In 2019, Equativ acquired LiquidM, a global Demand Side Platform (DSP) based in Berlin. [10]

In 2021, Equativ acquired DynAdmic, a Cookie-Free CTV and Video Advertising Platform providing Managed DSP services. [11]

In 2022, Equativ acquired Nowtilus, a German Advanced TV specialist. [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leveraged buyout</span> Acquired control over a company by the purchase of its shares with borrowed money

A leveraged buyout (LBO) is one company's acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money (leverage) to meet the cost of acquisition. The assets of the company being acquired are often used as collateral for the loans, along with the assets of the acquiring company. The use of debt, which normally has a lower cost of capital than equity, serves to reduce the overall cost of financing the acquisition. This is done at the risk of magnified cash flow losses should the acquisition perform poorly after the buyout.

In the field of finance, private equity (PE) is capital stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public. Private equity is offered instead to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the companies. In casual usage, "private equity" can refer to these investment firms rather than the companies that they invest in.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Revive Adserver</span> Open source advertising server

Revive Adserver is an open-source advertising server that is licensed under the GNU General Public License. It features an integrated banner management interface and tracking system for gathering statistics. It used to be known under different names in the past, most recently as OpenX Source. In Sep 2013, OpenX Source was sold to Andrew Hill and rebranded Revive Adserver. The current code base for OpenX Enterprise and Revive Adserver are completely separate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TPG Inc.</span> American investment company

TPG Inc., previously known as Texas Pacific Group and TPG Capital, is an American private equity firm based in Fort Worth, Texas. The firm is focused on leveraged buyouts and growth capital. TPG manages investment funds in growth capital, venture capital, public equity, and debt investments. The firm invests in a range of industries including consumer/retail, media and telecommunications, industrials, technology, travel, leisure, and health care.

HM Capital Partners was a private equity firm in the United States that specialized in leveraged buyouts. The firm was previously known as Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst. It was founded in 1989 by Tom Hicks and John Muse as Hicks, Muse & Co. and was changed in 1994 to reflect the roles of Charles Tate and Jack Furst.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roku, Inc.</span> American technology company

Roku, Inc. is a U.S. public company founded by Anthony Wood in 2002. It runs a streaming TV service through its branded streaming devices and smart TVs, supporting both advertising and subscription models on its platform. Roku leads U.S. streaming TV distribution, and reports over 80 million users globally as of 2023. Beyond the U.S., the company serves markets in Canada, Australia, the U.K., France, Germany, and several Latin American countries including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.

Bridgepoint Group plc is a British private investment company listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

A private equity fund is a collective investment scheme used for making investments in various equity securities according to one of the investment strategies associated with private equity. Private equity funds are typically limited partnerships with a fixed term of 10 years. At inception, institutional investors make an unfunded commitment to the limited partnership, which is then drawn over the term of the fund. From the investors' point of view, funds can be traditional or asymmetric.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Axel Springer SE</span> Large multimedia company in Europe

Axel Springer SE is a German multinational mass and online media company, based in Berlin, Germany. The company offers printing and publishing of advertisements, digital classifieds portfolio, marketing models and related services. Axel Springer's operations are segmented into News Media, Classifieds Media, and Marketing Media. The company is organized as a societas Europaea (SE) publishing house and is one of the largest mass media publishers in the European Union, with numerous multimedia news brands, such as Bild, Die Welt, Fakt, and the US political news site, Politico, which Axel Springer acquired in 2021.

Eurazeo is a French private equity firm and investment group headquartered in Paris. With a diversified portfolio of €35 billion in assets under management, including €23 billion from third parties, invested in more than 600 companies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apollo Global Management</span> American private equity company

Apollo Global Management, Inc. is an American private equity firm. It provides investment management and invests in credit, private equity, and real assets. As of 2022, the company had $548 billion of assets under management, including $392 billion invested in credit, including mezzanine capital, hedge funds, non-performing loans, and collateralized loan obligations, $99 billion invested in private equity, and $46.2 billion invested in real assets, which includes real estate and infrastructure. The company invests money on behalf of pension funds, financial endowments, and sovereign wealth funds, as well as other institutional and individual investors.

Xandr, formerly known as AppNexus, is an American multinational technology company operating a cloud-based software platform that enables and optimizes programmatic online advertising. Headquartered in the Flatiron District of New York City, the company has 23 offices in North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FatFace</span> Lifestyle clothing and accessories retailer, based in the UK

Fat Face Limited, trading as FatFace, is a British lifestyle brand, based in Hampshire, which creates product ranges across women's, men's, kids, footwear and accessories. FatFace is a multichannel retailer, with an international digital business, and over 180 stores in the UK and 20 stores in the US.

Livingly Media is an American digital media company based in Redwood City, California that publishes six lifestyle sites for women: Livingly.com, Lonny.com, Mabelandmoxie.com, Itsrosy.com, Zimbio.com, and StyleBistro.com. The six sites publish original articles, high resolution photography, social videos, and games, reaching a combined audience of over 25 million global monthly readers, according to Quantcast. Livingly covers women's lifestyle, Lonny covers home design, Mabel + Moxie covers parenting, It's Rosy covers women 50+, Zimbio covers entertainment news, and StyleBistro covers celebrity fashion and beauty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Care UK</span> United Kingdom home care franchise and provider

Care UK is a provider of residential care for older people. They operate more than 150 homes offering residential care, dementia care, and nursing care. The company formerly also operated a wider range of healthcare services until 2019 when these were split off to Practice Plus Group, private-equity firm Bridgepoint Group retaining ultimate control over both companies.

Aufeminin is a digital media group based in Paris, France, founded in 1999. It is 78.43% owned by the TF1 and is publicly traded by Euronext Paris in compartment B..

Mediaocean is an advertising services and software company, headquartered in New York City.

Viamedia is a cable television and digital advertising company headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky. Viamedia provides advertising sales management for cable TV operators, MVPD's, telcos, OTT/streaming and video providers across the US. Viamedia is one of the industry's leading providers of media advertising solutions for local, regional and national businesses and brands. The company currently has more than 12,000 active and prospective advertisers nationwide.

TubeMogul is an enterprise software company for brand advertising.

BioSerenity is a medtech company created in 2014 that develops ambulatory medical devices to help diagnose and monitor patients with chronic diseases such as epilepsy. The medical devices are composed of medical sensors, smart clothing, a smartphone app for Patient Reported Outcome, and a web platform to perform data analysis through Medical Artificial Intelligence for detection of digital biomarkers. The company initially focused on Neurology, a domain in which it reported contributing to the diagnosis of 30 000 patients per year. It now also operates in Sleep Disorders and Cardiology. BioSerenity reported it provides pharmaceutical companies with solutions for companion diagnostics.

References

  1. Societe.com
  2. (in French) Aufeminin va vendre Smart AdServer pour plus de 35 millions d'euros, JDN
  3. (in English) Smart AdServer Undergoes Ownership Overhaul, Adweek
  4. 100 clients français Smart Adserver
  5. Smart poursuit son développement à l'international, E-Marketing
  6. Aufeminin va vendre Smart pour plus de 35 millions d'euros, JDN
  7. Pub en ligne: Smart se pose en arme anti-Google, Le Figaro
  8. (in French) Interview de Cyrille Geffray, Stratégies
  9. Equativ valorisée plus de 300 M€ dans un buy-out avec Bridgepoint, Capital Finance
  10. AdServer, Smart (19 December 2019). "Smart s'offre le DSP LiquidM". www.strategies.fr (in French). Retrieved 2022-07-21.
  11. "A French ad firm just snapped up a startup to cash in on the boom in digital TV advertising". www.businessinsider.com. Retrieved 2022-08-05.
  12. "L'adtech française Equativ se renforce dans la télévision connectée". www.lesechos.fr (in French). 7 July 2022. Retrieved 2022-07-21.