Xandr

Last updated

Xandr, Inc.
FormerlyAT&T Advertising and Analytics (2018)
Company type Subsidiary
Industry
Predecessors
  • AT&T AdWorks
  • Turner Advertising
FoundedSeptember 25, 2018;7 years ago (2018-09-25)
Headquarters
New York City, New York
,
U.S.
Area served
Worldwide
ProductsCommunity
Xandr Invest
Xandr Monetize
Owner AT&T (2018 to 2022) Microsoft (2022-present)
Parent WarnerMedia (2020 to 2022)
Divisions
  • Xandr Media
  • Xandr Data
Subsidiaries
Website www.xandr.com

Xandr, Inc. (pronounced "Zander") was the advertising and analytics subsidiary of Microsoft, which operates an online platform, Community, for buying and selling consumer-centric digital advertising. [1]

Contents

In December 2021, AT&T sold Xandr (including AppNexus and Clypd) to Microsoft for an undisclosed price. [2] The acquisition was completed in June 2022.

In 2023, Microsoft retired the Xandr name and consolidated the business under its Microsoft Advertising brand. [3]

In 2025, Microsoft announced that it would shut down its buy-side Invest product in early 2026. [4]

History

Following its June 2018 acquisition of AppNexus, [5] Xandr was formed by AT&T to construct a national TV advertising marketplace.

Xandr was launched on September 25, 2018, at its inaugural AT&T Relevance Conference, in Santa Barbara, California. The name "Xandr" was chosen in honor of its parent company's founder, Alexander Graham Bell. [6] [7]

In June 2019, Xandr rebranded its AppNexus DSP, launching Xandr Invest, to serve as its central ad-buying hub. [8] [9]

On October 18, 2019, Xandr acquired Massachusetts-based Clypd, an audience-based sales platform for television advertising. [10] [11]

On April 30, 2020, Xandr was folded into WarnerMedia. [12]

Rumors and speculation spread in 2020 that AT&T was seeking to sell and offload Xandr, along with DirecTV and Crunchyroll. The reasoning was twofold: first, AT&T took on immense debt to purchase WarnerMedia, and any non-core asset sales would help pay off that debt burden. Secondly, Xandr was inherently compromised by its association with AT&T and HBO Max, as many would-be advertisers were reluctant to use what is essentially a competitor for their ad buys. As such, it might be more lucrative on its own. [13]

On May 17, 2021, it was announced that WarnerMedia would be merged with Discovery, Inc. to form a new publicly traded company known as Warner Bros. Discovery, but that the Xandr business would not be included in the transaction and would remain a division of AT&T. [14] On December 21, 2021, AT&T announced that they had agreed to sell Xandr (including AppNexus and Clypd) to Microsoft for an undisclosed price, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory reviews. [2]

On June 6, 2022, Microsoft completed the acquisition of Xandr to bolster its advertising and retail media business, for about $1 billion. [15]

Leadership

Until it was folded into Microsoft Advertising, Xandr was led by Mike Welch, [16] after the departure in March 2020 by former GroupM North America CEO Brian Lesser, who was appointed chief executive officer of AT&T advertising and analytics in 2017. [17] Kirk McDonald, who served as interim CEO following Lesser's departure, [18] moved to GroupM, a subsidiary of WPP, in August 2020. [19]

Operations

In May 2019, Xandr launched Community, its new video marketplace [20] that connects advertisers, publishers, and consumer media brands, [21] including Warner Bros. Discovery platforms: CNN, TNT, TruTV, B/R Live, and Otter Media. Other media on the Community platform includes Vice Media, Hearst Communications, Newsy, Philo, Tubi, and Xumo, [22] [23] Vudu, and Bloomberg. [24]

The fee-transparent, [25] consumer-centric Xandr advertising model combines data, AT&T’s then newly acquired WarnerMedia content, AppNexus, and other proprietary advertising technology, to integrate with AT&T’s consumer network, [6] [7] creating the first personalized advertising of its kind, with different commercials being delivered to different viewers simultaneously. [26] [ promotion? ]

During its first year, Xandr’s revenue was mainly derived from DirecTV sales. The company has approximately 1800 employees, [27] including 60 in Europe. [21]

In 2023 Netzpolitik.org analyzed an inventory file of Xandr [28] and described how it categorizes people in an article series [29] and a talk at the Chaos Communication Congress. [30]

References

  1. ↑ Lafayette, Jon (February 11, 2019). "AT&T Putting All Programmatic Digital Ad Spending with Xandr". Broadcasting Cable. Archived from the original on June 14, 2020. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  2. 1 2 Foley, Mary Jo (December 21, 2021). "Microsoft to buy Xandr ad marketplace from AT&T". ZDNet . Retrieved December 21, 2021.
  3. ↑ Creegan, Jennifer (June 18, 2023). "Putting our assets to work for publishers and advertisers" . Retrieved October 6, 2025.
  4. ↑ Sainsbury-Carter, Kya (May 14, 2025). "Empowering businesses for a future that is conversational, personal, and agentic" . Retrieved October 6, 2025.
  5. ↑ Paoletta, Rae (November 29, 2018). "AT&T's Xandr Officially Combines Its TV Ad Biz With The AppNexus Digital Ad Platform". AdExchanger. Archived from the original on September 24, 2021. Retrieved October 27, 2021.
  6. 1 2 "AT&T Ad Unit Now Called 'Xandr' in Nod to Alexander Graham Bell". September 25, 2018 – via www.bloomberg.com.
  7. 1 2 "AT&T Launches New Advertising Company, Xandr". about.att.com. Archived from the original on April 13, 2019. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  8. ↑ Mariel Soto Reyes (June 12, 2019). "The Relevance Conference Santa Barbara, a leadership series presented by Xandr, an AT&T unit". Business insider. Archived from the original on December 13, 2019. Retrieved December 13, 2019.
  9. ↑ Dang, Sheila (June 10, 2019). "The AT&T's Xandr launches ad-buying platform for premium content". Reuters. Archived from the original on December 13, 2019. Retrieved December 13, 2019.
  10. ↑ "XANDR ACQUIRES CLYPD IN MOVE TO BUILD CONNECTED TV EMPIRE Archived October 21, 2019, at the Wayback Machine Ad Age; October 18, 2019. Accessed October 21, 2019.]
  11. ↑ Dang, Sheila (October 17, 2019). "AT&T's Xandr purchases TV advertising company clypd: source". Reuters. Archived from the original on December 12, 2019. Retrieved December 13, 2019.
  12. ↑ "WarnerMedia and Xandr Combine To Create A Stronger Value Proposition For Agencies, Advertisers, and Publishers". Xandr. April 30, 2020. Archived from the original on May 1, 2020. Retrieved May 10, 2020.
  13. ↑ "AT&T Ups Effort to Sell DirecTV, Xandr and Crunchyroll – Media Play News". September 2020. Archived from the original on March 2, 2021. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
  14. ↑ Rifilato, Tony (May 17, 2021). "AT&T Will Hold On To Xandr As It Relinquishes WarnerMedia". adexchanger.com. Archived from the original on May 18, 2021. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
  15. ↑ Czarnecki, Sean (June 6, 2022). "Microsoft just closed its acquisition of adtech firm Xandr. Here are 5 other companies it could buy to compete with Google and Meta". Business Insider . Retrieved July 1, 2022.
  16. ↑ "2019 AT&T EARNINGS Xandr Segment" (PDF). AT&T. p. 25. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 30, 2021. Retrieved October 27, 2021.
  17. ↑ "GroupM North America CEO Brian Lesser to Depart for AT&T Role" Archived August 21, 2019, at the Wayback Machine by Alexandra Bruell; The Wall Street Journal ; August 4, 2017. Accessed May 21, 2019.
  18. ↑ "With CEO Brian Lesser gone, advertisers question AT&T's commitment to Xandr". digiday.com. March 16, 2020. Archived from the original on March 17, 2020. Retrieved March 16, 2020.
  19. ↑ Steinberg, Brian (August 18, 2020). "Kirk McDonald Will Become North American CEO of GroupM". variety.com. Archived from the original on May 18, 2021. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
  20. ↑ "Xandr To Launch 'Community' Marketplace, Enhanced Addressable TV Offerings". www.mediapost.com. Archived from the original on July 31, 2019. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  21. 1 2 Joseph, Seb (July 1, 2019). "AT&T's Xandr has ambitious European expansion plans". DIGIDAY. Archived from the original on December 14, 2019. Retrieved December 13, 2019.
  22. ↑ "AT&T's Xandr Unveils Community, Its Long-Awaited Video Marketplace". May 14, 2019. Archived from the original on October 27, 2021. Retrieved October 27, 2021.
  23. ↑ "Xandr introduces ad marketplace, dubbed Community, during upfronts". Ad Age. May 14, 2019. Archived from the original on October 21, 2020. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  24. ↑ Lafayette, Jon (September 23, 2019). "One Year In, Xandr Still Pushing for Relevant Ads". Broadcasting & Cable. Archived from the original on December 13, 2019. Retrieved December 13, 2019.
  25. ↑ Sluis, Sarah (December 11, 2018). "AppNexus Reworks Publisher Contracts To Enable Fee Transparency For Buyers". AdExchanger. Archived from the original on April 11, 2021. Retrieved October 27, 2021.
  26. ↑ "AT&T Pushes Xandr Ad Products in Viacom Carriage Talks" by Alexandra Bruell; The Wall Street Journal; March 25, 2019. Accessed May 21, 2019. Archived May 21, 2019, at the Wayback Machine On March 11, 2020 CEO Brian Lesser resigned. On April 30, 2020 AT&T announced that Warner Media and Xandr would be merged.
  27. ↑ Steinberg, Brian (December 10, 2019). "AT&T's Xandr Works for Closer Ties With WarnerMedia". Variety. Archived from the original on December 11, 2019. Retrieved December 13, 2019.
  28. ↑ Dachwitz, Ingo (July 6, 2023). "Surveillance advertising in Europe: The adtech industry tracks most of what you do on the Internet. This file shows just how much". netzpolitik.org. Retrieved June 18, 2024.
  29. ↑ Gille, Johannes (August 24, 2023). "Schlagwort: Die Xandr-Recherche". netzpolitik.org (in German). Retrieved June 18, 2024.
  30. ↑ Meineck, Sebastian; Dachwitz, Ingo (December 27, 2023). Die Akte Xandr . Retrieved June 18, 2024– via media.ccc.de.
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