The CEO of Unruly, which just sold to Rupert Murdoch for $176 million, told us why the acquisition is such a huge deal
Speaking to Business Insider, Unruly's co-CEO and cofounder Sarah Wood explained how the deal is huge for two reasons: for News Corp, but also what it signals for the wider media and advertising landscape.
Unruly specializes in serving and analyzing video advertising and brand videos that appear outside of the confines of YouTube and Facebook. Its technology allows marketers to buy "native" video ad formats using automated (known as "programmatic") means, track the performance of their video content across social, and it has an analytics tool that predicts whether videos are likely to go viral.
As part of the deal, Unruly cofounders Sarah Wood, Scott Button, and Matt Cooke will work for News Corp, although the company will operate as a separate business unit and remain in its east London headquarters. The three cofounders will report directly into Rebekah Brooks, who recently returned for her second stint in the role of News UK chief executive.
Unruly will increase News Corp's revenue "from day one"
Unruly's role will be to help News Corp's properties across the globe - from The Sun newspaper in the UK, to Fox Sports, The Wall Street Journal, and HarperCollins Publishers - better monetize their websites through video ads.
Marketers are crying out for premium video ad inventory because it harnesses the sights, sound, and motion of TV ads, but with better measurement and targeting options - but there's simply not enough of it to fulfill demand.
News Corp is hoping the deal will help it increase that supply. Unruly's performance goals are simply to deliver the three-year plan it already had in place: to roll out new native video formats, to grow geographically, acquire tech, and work with premium video publishers. News Corp's properties benefit from the growth of all of those areas - even the fact that Unruly will continue to work with other publishers, because that help improves the ad tech company's analytics and targeting engines (although who knows how long those other publishers will stick around and let News Corp take advantage of their data.)
Wood told Business Insider: "This is a catalyst deal for News Corp to accelerate their digital transformation."
Indeed, even News Corp executive chairman Rupert Murdoch tweeted about the deal, the company's largest UK acquisition since the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.
How the deal came about
Expect more legacy media companies to make big strategic tech buys in the coming months
