This news today seems like a negative for TTD. Dataxu is a DSP/programmatic competitor. ROKU is clearly planning to bring programmatic ad-buying in-house. They may still continue to work with TTD, but they will certainly favor advertisers buying through their newly-acquired Dataxu platform.
Roku is buying ad tech company Dataxu in $150 million deal
Roku is buying Dataxu, a platform that lets marketers plan and buy video ad campaigns, for $150 million in cash and stock. The deal was announced Tuesday morning. Roku shares were up more than 2% Tuesday morning.
Boston-based Dataxu, a demand-side platform, provides marketers with automated bidding and self-serve software to manage ad campaigns programmatically across digital platforms.
Roku said buying Dataxu’s platform will complement its existing ad platform and give marketers a software solution that lets them plan, buy and optimize ad spend across TV and over-the-top providers. The company also said Dataxu’s team includes “strong talent” in software engineering, data science and analytics.
Many (Darth can probably help) follow ROKU more closely than I. It is my understanding ROKU does sell inventory “direct” meaning they have a department who is selling their inventory and allowing for ad campaigns to be set up and adjusted while providing some level of feedback to ad buyers (ROI).
Additionally, ROKU partners with both DSP to help sell inventory and SSP (presumably to help supply inventory). The Trade Desk is one of their DSP partners.
Will the purchase of Dataxu allow ROKU to wall off? I doubt it, but you never know. For someone interested in ROKU, I’m not sure this is a great way to spend their money. They are going to invest in the infrastructure that TTD and others offer. TTD especially has a huge lead in developing these services/platforms to help buyers realize ROI on ads. Unless ROKU wants to end up as a walled garden, it seems focusing on becoming the best TV OS would be more profitable. But what do I know.
My take, I don’t think this will have much impact on TTD. Is it a good investment for Roku, I defer to the judgment of their management. I have to assume that it is. I’m long both TTD and Roku and plan to do nothing in light of this news.
There’s ton of TTD kind of program company’s would like to do the same like TTD but non of them doing great than TTD. ROKU is one of my main stock. And IMO they doing the channel things very well, just like river into the ocean (sorry in my native language XD), ROKU did good job while the strong CTV tail wind. So they need do some preparation for future and that’s what they do for the future.
I just sold all my Roku and bought Alteryx with the proceeds even though AYX is already one of my largest positions. I like Roku. I think it will do well. I just like AYX better. At least for right now I do.