August 5th-August 11th // Estimated Reading Time: 13 minutes
Below is a roundup of last week’s notable industry news, with summaries and our opinions. So many (mixed) Q2 earnings! But the headline story is a large, somewhat unexpected acquisition 👀
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Top Story 👁
Nielsen is acquiring DoubleVerify for $2.15B
Source: AdExchanger
August 6th, 2026
Summary: The all-cash deal represents a 30% premium over where DV's stock had been trading before the news. DV, an OG brand safety and suitability vendor, will continue operating under its own brand. Nielsen is working hard to sell DV’s "independence" story, using the word nine times in the announcement. Nielsen expects the combined company to generate more than $4B annually. Nielsen is paying for DV through a combination of cash on hand and debt financing. The deal is expected to close in early 2027.
The deal comes less than a year after DV rival IAS went private, acquired by PE firm Novacap for $1.9B. DV has been busy acquiring companies too. It bought multi-touch attribution startup Rockerbox for $85M in early 2025 and AI-driven buy-side ad optimization company Scibids for around $125M in 2023, which pushed DV beyond its verification and viewability roots.
DV's growth has slowed, with Q2 revenue up just 3% to $193.8M, and its core programmatic business down 1%. Nielsen is acquiring DV during a time of rebuilding and transformation, as it tries to maintain its role as the industry’s dominant television measurement currency.
Deal Grades:
Nielsen: B-
DoubleVerify: A
Opinion: DoubleVerify isn’t a growth story. It isn’t an AI story. It isn’t a company with some massive upside that just needs an infusion of capital to build new products or hire new people. It kind of is what it is: an unsexy, yet necessary protection layer for digital advertisers that dominates half of a fully tapped out sector (IAS owns the other half). So … why did Nielsen buy it?
To be honest, we’re not quite sure. But since it’s our job to speculate (and we enjoy speculating), here are some ideas:
DV delivers slow and steady revenue growth, strong profitability, and has no real disruptors on the horizon. A solid (yet unspectacular) asset to own.
Nielsen needed to become a “digital company”. It has tried over the years through smaller acquisitions (e.g. Gracenote, eXelate), but the company is still predominantly known as “the linear TV measurement currency company”. DoubleVerify has a big enough digital brand to officially stamp Nielsen as a digital / ad tech / programmatic company, overnight.
Media efficacy measurement (Nielsen) and media quality measurement (DoubleVerify) go hand-in-hand. Today, marketers look at efficacy in one place and quality in another, pay two separate fees, and try to reconcile the two. It creates headaches. For example, marketers will waste tons of time trying to scrub out conversions that are attributed to media which is also flagged to be of low quality (e.g. non-viewable, fraudulent, etc.). Nielsen should (theoretically) be able to solve this problem now.
Nielsen needed a way to cross-sell and upsell their measurement solutions to digital buyers. Nielsen's biggest checks have traditionally come from sellers: networks and broadcasters, whereas DoubleVerify’s biggest checks have come from buyers: programmatic agencies and brands. As linear and streaming TV converge, and Nielsen attempts to evolve its business from linear into cross-channel measurement, DoubleVerify helps Nielsen get into the right rooms and conversations. Not to mention Nielsen helping DoubleVerify get into the right rooms and conversations with sellers.
Of course, as always, the success of the deal will hinge on smart integration and execution. We will be keeping tabs!
Burning Question: Is IAS getting bought next?
Lots More Q2 Earnings!
AppLovin (👎): Revenue was up 53% to $1.92B, missing estimates. The company said upgrades to its AI ad model started impacting the business after Q2 ended. Q3 guidance🔒 was soft. Shares fell 19%, hitting a 52-week low.
The Trade Desk🔒 (👎): Revenue was up 3% to $715M, missing estimates. This was the company’s slowest growth rate since 2020. The independent DSP cited macro headwinds and execution issues, and advertisers choosing cheaper buying options. The company also said it has no plans to adjust its pricing. Q3 guidance missed expectations. Shares fell nearly 25% in after-hours trading to 2018 levels.
DoubleVerify (🤷): Revenue was up 3% to $193.8M, missing estimates. Activation revenue fell 1%, while measurement revenue rose 6% and supply-side revenue rose 13%. DV announced the Nielsen deal and withdrew guidance. Shares rose 13+% in extended and pre-market trading on the acquisition news.
Magnite (👍): Revenue was up 11% to $192.8M, beating estimates. CTV was a bright spot, and the SSP is slowly adding more buy-side features. Magnite raised full-year guidance. Shares rose 10.2% in after-hours trading.
PubMatic (👍): Revenue was up 11% to $78.6M, beating estimates. CTV, mobile app, and AI-driven products drove growth, making up ~60% of revenue, double from three years ago. Q3 guidance topped estimates. Shares rose 20% in after-hours trading.
Criteo (👎): Revenue was down 11% to $428M, missing expectations. Retail media revenue fell 21%, while performance media revenue was down 10%. Criteo kept missing its own guidance after overforecasting ad platform commitments that didn't come through. Criteo lowered 2026 guidance. Shares fell 24% in premarket trading.
Viant (🤷): Revenue was up 34% to a record $104.3M, beating estimates. CTV spend jumped nearly 50%, accounting for over 50% of total advertiser spend. Shares were unchanged in after-hours trading, before falling the next day.
LiveRamp (🤷) Revenue was up 10% to $214M, beating estimates. LiveRamp didn't issue guidance or hold an investor's call due to its pending acquisition by Publicis, which is on track to close by the end of 2026. Shares were largely flat.
Unity (👍): Revenue was up 24% to $546M, beating estimates. The mobile platform’s CEO attributed momentum to Unity Vector AI (its AI-powered advertising and user acquisition platform) and its product roadmap. Q3 guidance topped estimates. Shares rose 17%.
Teads (👎): Revenue was down 17% to $284.6M, missing estimates. CTV revenue was up 67%, but direct response revenue fell 30% amid continued "open-web headwinds." Teads suspended its full-year guidance. Shares fell 24% in premarket trading.
Taboola (👎): Revenue was up 2.4% to $476.8M, missing estimates. Taboola touted momentum on its AI platform Realize, but Q3 and full-year revenue guidance missed estimates. Shares fell nearly 17% in pre-market trading.
Perion (👎): Revenue was down 5% to $98.2M, missing estimates. CTV spend was up 56%, DOOH up 45%, retail media up 60%, and Outmax AI agent spend up 136%, but legacy search and open-web revenue weighed on results. Shares fell 7.8% in premarket trading.
Digital Turbine (👍): Revenue was up 27% to $166.0M, beating estimates. AI is helping the company optimize its data to drive better results for partners and advertisers. Digital Turbine raised full-year guidance. Shares rose 16.3% in after-hours trading.
Instacart🔒 (👍): Revenue was up 14% to $1.04B, beating estimates. Advertising and other revenue was up 16% to $297M. Current quarter guidance beat estimates. Shares rose 10% in after-hours trading.
Roku (👍): Revenue was up 22% to $1.35B, beating estimates. Ad revenue was up 25% to $673M, and subscriptions revenue was up 26% to $548M. Roku skipped Q3 guidance due to its pending Fox acquisition. Shares rose 17.7% in after-hours trading.
Shopify (👍): Revenue was up 34% to $3.58B, beating estimates. The president called it a "monster quarter," boosted by AI tools and a 32% increase in gross merchandise volume. Q3 guidance topped consensus. Shares rose 22% in premarket trading.
Paramount Skydance (👎): Revenue was up 1% to $6.91B, beating estimates. Streaming revenue was up 9% to $2.47B, with Paramount+ adding 2M subscribers, reaching 81.6M. TV Media (linear) revenue fell 9% to $3.13B. Paramount raised 2026 guidance. Shares fell 5%.
Warner Bros. Discovery (🤷): Revenue was down 11% to $8.72B, missing estimates. Streaming revenue was up 10% to $3.08B, but overall ad revenue fell 22%, in part because of the loss of NBA rights. Shares rose 1.7%.
Disney (👍): Revenue was up 7% to $25.25B, missing estimates. Experiences revenue was up 10% to $9.97B. Streaming revenue was up 11% to $5.53B, boosted by subscriber growth, price hikes, and higher ad revenue. Sports revenue was up 4% to $4.5B. Shares rose 3%.
New York Times🔒 (👎): Revenue was up 11% to $762.5M, beating estimates. Digital ad revenue was up 21% to $114M, but the NYT added just 280K net digital subscribers, its smallest sequential gain in a year. NYT warned of slower subscriber revenue growth in Q3. Shares fell 13%.
Fox (👍): Revenue was up 28% to $4.21B, beating estimates. Ad revenue was up 78% to $1.92B, driven by the FIFA World Cup and continued growth of ad-supported Tubi. Shares rose 4% in premarket trading.
WPP🔒 (👍): Organic revenue was down 2.8%, beating estimates, and improving on Q1's 6.7% drop. CEO Cindy Rose credited her turnaround plan and recent account wins, including Estée Lauder and Wendy's, for the improving trend. Shares rose 24%.
Opinion: Here’s the TL;DR version of Q2 earnings.
Hot: AI infrastructure (Azure, AWS), CTV-focused SSPs (Magnite, PubMatic), retail media (Instacart, Shopify).
Not Hot: Open web ad platforms (The Trade Desk, Criteo), ad networks (Taboola, Perion, Teads), and measurement (LiveRamp, DoubleVerify).
The name of the game right now is owned media and CTV. Any business predicated on the open web is dying.
Other Notable Headlines 👀
National CineMedia expands beyond movie theaters with $275M Captivate acquisition - National CineMedia operates the largest cinema advertising network in the US. Captivate Holdings operates more than 26K digital video screens across over 11K office and residential buildings in the US and Canada. Combined with National CineMedia's theater footprint, the deal creates a network of 48K+ screens spanning 185 DMAs, including every top 100 market. The move also gives National CineMedia a bigger pool of programmatic inventory and stronger data and targeting capabilities to pitch to advertisers. The bet is that scale beats specialization in out-of-home.
VideoAmp cuts staff as AI agents take center stage🔒 - The CTV ad measurement company laid off about 20% of its workforce last week. The casualties included the CTO, which VideoAmp has no plans to replace. CEO Tony Fagan framed the move as part of a shift toward becoming an AI-driven platform, betting that early adopters of the technology will pull ahead of slower competitors. Most of those let go worked in product and engineering, as tasks once handled by developers increasingly get done by AI agents instead. It's the second major leadership cut at VideoAmp this year, following the removal of its CMO position earlier in 2026.
New Mexico court orders Meta to pay additional $567M in child safety case - New Mexico sued Meta over claims that its platforms fueled a youth mental health crisis, connected predators with children, and misled the public about safety on the platform. Meta lost the case and was ordered to pay a $375M fine in March. This week, a judge added another $567M to the total, bringing Meta's total fine up to $942M. The judge also ordered changes to how Meta operates in the state, including removing Like counts for minors unless a parent approves and capping their app use at 90 hours a month. Meta plans to appeal.
Sony is scaling up its Playstation advertising ambitions🔒 - A string of job postings at Sony Interactive Entertainment's Media Solutions team points to a bigger push into advertising. The roles span client partnerships, ad operations and technology, and ad sales in the US, UK, and Japan, suggesting Sony is building global infrastructure rather than a regional business. If it pans out, this would be Sony's fourth attempt at monetizing PlayStation through ads, following prior efforts that never turned into a lasting business. Analysts say rising production costs and price-sensitive gamers are pushing publishers toward new revenue streams that don't increase the consumer-facing price tag. Xbox and Electronic Arts are also chasing these ad dollars. Pressure is on.
Netflix nearly doubles ad sales commitments again while closing upfront🔒 - It's the second straight year of the company roughly doubling its ad commitments. Netflix is on track for $3B in ad revenue this year. Demand was especially strong for live sports, with the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup selling out of sponsorships and nearly selling out of in-game streaming inventory. Returning shows like Bridgerton and Emily in Paris, plus the expanded NFL slate, WWE, and MLB, also drove advertiser interest. Netflix highlighted ad tech upgrades, including new DSP deals for programmatic buying and AI-powered tools for building pause ads. The Media Rating Council also granted Netflix Ads Suite its first accreditation for in-stream video impressions across CTV, mobile, and desktop.
Other Notable Headlines
(that you should know about too) 🤓
Google to face $6.3B lawsuit in UK search advertising row - A UK tribunal greenlit a class action lawsuit accusing Google of inflating search ad prices for hundreds of thousands of businesses.
Tougher Google antitrust penalties threaten Firefox, Mozilla warns - Mozilla told the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that a ban on Google's payments to browsers to be the default search engine could force Mozilla to exit the browser business entirely.
Experian retires the Audigent brand, folding it into Experian Marketing Services🔒 - Experian bought Audigent in December 2024 and has absorbed the curation business into Experian Marketing Services. Experian called it a consolidation, not a retreat.
Spotify's new ad-skipping feature is not scaring off podcast advertisers yet - Spotify is testing a "skip ahead" button for Premium subscribers that lets them jump past ads, intros, and sponsorships on podcasts, but it doesn't apply to ads Spotify sells directly.
Walmart finally lets advertisers exclude certain search terms - Walmart Connect now offers "negative keywords" for sponsored-products campaigns, letting brands block their ads from showing up in response to irrelevant or misaligned search terms. Amazon has had this feature since 2019.
Nikita Bier steps down as X's head of product - Bier is exiting after a little over a year in the role, during which he says he oversaw the launch of 30 new products. Bier will stay on as an advisor.
That’s It For This Week 👋
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