Amazon is closing in on a deal to buy Sizmek’s ad servers, according to two sources speaking to Bloomberg. The claims come after Sizmek fled for bankruptcy in March, when its main private equity backer cut off access to capital amid snowballing losses.
Sizmek, once the world’s largest independent buy-side advertising platform, has been selling off assets as part of the bankruptcy proceedings. Sizmek’s bankruptcy filing showed it owed money to between 1,000 and 5,000 creditors. At the time, Sizmek estimated its assets were worth $100 million to $500 million.
The company has already sold its data management and demand-side platforms to Zeta Global holdings for $36 million in April in the first asset sale since filing for bankruptcy. Under the terms of that acquisition, which closed May 1, Zeta is taking over Sizmek’s DSP and DMP platforms and hiring more than 200 Sizmek employees.
Sizmek Assets Could Give Amazon a Boost as it Takes Fight to Google
Sizmek’s Ad Server, which helps advertisers place spots online and measure their effectiveness, competes with Google’s Marketing Platform, better known by its previous name DoubleClick. The infrastructure would boost Amazon’s pitch to advertisers.
Sizmek served 1.5 trillion ad impressions yearly, for 20,000 advertisers and 3,600 agencies globally. The discussions come as Amazon tries to take the fight to Google and Facebook’s online advertising duopoly, including with plans to sell video spots on the ecommerce giant’s mobile app, according to widespread reports.
The space remains dominated by Facebook and Google, the latter of which this week rolled out a raft of new services for advertisers at a conference on May 14.
New features include targeted ads for retail products on Gmail, Google Images, the YouTube mobile app and Google assistant, along with app “deep linking” from Google Ads. On the consumer-facing side, new shopping features include a personalised homepage on the Shopping tab, where users can filter by brands and features.
Amazon currently offers a range of options for advertisers, including Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, (self-serve, cost-per-click solutions available to registered sellers, vendors, book vendors, Kindle Direct Publishing authors, app developers, and agencies) along with. stores, display ads, videos ads, and ads run through the Amazon programmatic demand-side platform (DSP). Neither party commented.
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