Facebook is shutting down the video ad company it bought for about half a billion two years ago
Facebook is shutting down its video ad exchange, LiveRail, which helped publishers make money from their videos by connecting them to advertisers through an automated bidding process.
Facebook bought LiveRail for a reported $400 million to $500 million in July 2014 to help it "make video advertising much better for everyone," but the acquisition didn't play out as expected.
In April, Facebook ad exec Brian Boland admitted to Business Insider that integrating LiveRail's technology "frankly took longer than we would have hoped."
He said that ad fraud and viewability issues made LiveRail change course.
Over the last few months, the company's CEO left and Facebook laid off dozens of LiveRail staffers.
"We are discontinuing the LiveRail Private Exchange to focus on finding better ways for publishers to sell their ad space directly to advertisers, as well as expanding our video ad offering via Audience Network," a spokesperson said via email. "This is what many of our publishing partners told us they wanted, and we believe this will make video ads more relevant to the people who watch them."
A source familiar with the company's plans told The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news, that the LiveRail brand isn't going away because Facebook might decide to build new video ad tech products.
It's been a big week for Facebook operated ad tech: Just yesterday, the company confirmed that it was shutting down its ad exchange, FBX, which allowed third party ad companies to buy desktop Facebook ads.
Both shutdowns look like a sign that Facebook's putting even more attention on an ads platform called Facebook Audience Network, built in-house, which lets brands extend their Facebook ad campaigns beyond Facebook using the same targeting data as they use within it.