Roku acquires advanced ad platform Dataxu

Roku CEO, Anthony Wood

Roku is to acquire Boston-based Dataxu, a demand-side advertising platform provider that enables marketers to plan and buy video ad campaigns.

Under the terms of the agreement, Roku is purchasing the company for US$150 million in cash and shares of Roku Class A Common Stock. The acquisition agreement has been approved by each company’s board of directors and is anticipated to close in the fourth quarter, subject to regulatory approvals.

Dataxu provides marketers with an automated bidding and self-serve software solution to manage ad campaigns programmatically across digital platforms using what Roku describes as advanced TV and OTT media planning tools, a proprietary device graph, and data science to help marketers optimize for business outcomes across TV, OTT, desktop and mobile.

Roku said that the acquisition would complement its OTT advertising platform and enable it to provide marketers a single, data-driven software solution to plan, buy, and optimize their ad spend across TV and OTT providers. 

In its note on the acquisition, Roku cited Forrester’s New Wave: Cross-Channel Video Advertising Platforms 2019 report, which gave Dataxu the highest scores for its current offering in cross-channel video advertising. 

“TV advertising is shifting toward OTT and a data-driven model focused on business outcomes for brands,” said Anthony Wood, chief executive officer at Roku. “The acquisition of dataxu will accelerate our ad platform while also helping our content partners monetize their inventory even more effectively.”