Sarah Sluis
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The Big Story
Smart Acquisition Or Frankenstack? Stagwell-Freestar And DoorDash-Instacart
It’s fall, M&A is in the air. Two acquisitions happened this week: Stagwell bought Freestar and DoorDash bought Instacart.
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The Big Story
Identity Resolution Goes The Way Of The Cookie
Safari is tracking the trackers. Apple officially blocked identity resolution providers this week. Our guest, Zach Edwards, a cybersecurity researcher and the co-founder of DecryptAds, puts the decision into context. Plus: Edwards discusses his research into how programmatic channels are monetizing AI slop.
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The Big Story
The Auction Flip: Prebid’s Plan To Swap Places With Google
Google won’t have to break up its SSP and ad server. So this week, Prebid unveiled its plan to help Google fulfill the court’s requirements at its annual Prebid Summit. Then: how brands are using their data in an agentic world, and why there’s a rise of AI “employees.”
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The Big Story
Apple Takes A Bite Out Of Programmatic
Is the open web growing, dying or transforming? Plus: Apple’s iOS update is blocking The Trade Desk from serving ads on Safari browsers, and how that fits into programmatic’s next chapter.
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The Big Story
Buying CTV In The WarnerMount World
Let’s talk acquisitions! The WarnerMount merger is close to being in the clear, after California and 11 other states settled their antitrust lawsuit against the merger. Plus: Taboola bought Dianomi. Infillion bought Foursquare. We get into what all three of these companies will look like post-acquisition.
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The Big Story
The Trade Desk’s Bumpy Ride Down
The Trade Desk’s recent reduction of 15% of its workforce comes after nearly two years of challenges on Wall Street, leadership turnover and bumpy product decisions. Independent analyst Richard Kramer comes on to dissect how Wall Street views TTD – and what it got wrong in the first place.
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The Big Story
Auctions In The Crosshairs
Two Big Tech moments capped the summer: The FTC sued Amazon over its kinda-sorta second-price auctions, alleging deceptive practices. And Judge Brinkema declared that Google will not have to spin off its ad server.
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The Big Story
There’s A Meta Diaspora Building The Fastest-Growing Ad Platforms
The great Meta migration is in full swing. Ex-Meta employees are, filling the ranks at Open AI, TikTok, Amazon Ads and Roku and bringing their expertise with them.
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Data-Driven Thinking
I Used An AI Agent To Do My Back-To-School Shopping. It Was Easy. So Why Do I Feel Sad?
Back-to-school shopping is one of my most treasured late-summer activities. When the school supply list came out as a kid, I would wait with anticipation until my mom could drive me to Office Max in her minivan. I’d spend as long as I could in the store deliberating between seven different types of highlighters and […]
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The Big Story
AppLovin’s Play To Reach Non-Gaming Advertisers
Gaming apps are filled with ads for more gaming apps. Why not other advertisers? We go inside AppLovin’s play to bring non-gaming advertisers into the fold.
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