Nexstar Media Group to buy LKQD in $90m transaction
Nexstar Media Group today (December 7) announced it has agreed to acquire LKQD Technologies, a specialist outfit that helps publishers and media buyers with their online video ads, in a transaction anticipated to be worth $90m.
M&A activity in the adtech space has slowed in 2017 although video advertising companies remain a popular acquisition target
The transaction is expected to close in December 2017, and will see LKQD’s earnings immediately included in Nexstar’s revenue streeam with the newly acquired company’s founding team, including chief executive Brian DeFrancesco, and technology chief Christophe Clapp, due to join Nexstar.
Founded in 2014, LKQD’s video platform provides infrastructure support for parties on all sides of the advertising equation, with an audience reach of over 115 million US online video viewers each month, across all screens.
LKQD’s infrastructure supports video ad serving, mediation, programmatic auctions as well as an advance reporting model, and will now be integrated with Nexstar’s audience reach across 170 stations in over 100 local US markets, which it hopes will present new revenue growth opportunities.
Perry A Sook, Nexstar chief executive officer and president said the purchase is consistent with its ambitions to drive new revenue opportunities that are in line with clients’ priorities.
He added: “By adhering to our disciplined acquisition and integration criteria, we are acquiring the leading, fast-growing, profitable, online video advertising business at an attractive, accretive valuation. Looking ahead, we continue to evaluate additional digital investments and select accretive transactions to drive the next phase of growth and success for Nexstar Digital.”
Sook went on to highlight that LKQD’s inventory pool would help advertisers’ fears over media quality and brand safety as they look to chasing relevant audiences online. “This focus results in industry-leading metrics with respect to mitigating fraudulent traffic and ensuring brand safety,” he added.
DeFrancesco commented: “This is a win-win for clients on both sides, as Nexstar’s suite of local and national digital marketing products, content monetization solutions and digital services combined with LKQD’s end-to-end digital video advertising infrastructure technology, will allow small and mid-sized media publishers and businesses to maximize revenues across every available channel.”
Announcement of the deal comes a week after fellow video adtech specialist outfit Innovid announced it has agreed to acquire Taykey in a bid to bolster its ability to help advertisers deliver more relevant ads to audiences.
A recent report by Mergermarket revaled that blockbuster mergers and acquisitions across the technology, media and telecoms sector have slowed to the tune of $92bn over the first nine months of the year.