Videology Is 'Preparing' For An IPO In 2015
It's another sign that adtech - especially video ad companies - are a hot area for IPOs and big exits. Last week, Tubemogul, another video adtech company, filed for a $75 million IPO. Before that, Tremor Video went public in 2013. And AOL bought Adap.tv for $405 million in 2013, also.
Videology supplies the tech platforms to all sides of the business - buyers, sellers and clients that need analytics - across both PC and mobile.
The company has raised $130 million in investment funding so far, and has 325 employees. It's notable that in the adtech business, "300" is the new "100" for employee headcount. It used to be the case, a couple of years ago, that growing an adtech startup to 100 people was a big milestone, indicating a growing portfolio of clients to service. Now, we're increasingly seeing companies with more than 300 employees in global offices. New York's Appnexus is still probably the biggest - 565 people on LinkedIn claim to be currently employed there.
The company did about $200 million in revenue last year, he says. Those sales came in a mix of net and gross revenues from clients who pay a portion of their total adspend and from those who license technology from the company. Clients include the big ad agency holding companies like Publicis Omnicom Group, WPP as well as major media companies around the word, including Yahoo! Japan.
Video advertising is more lucrative than regular web advertising, because it costs more. "We've actually tapped into TV budgets," Ferber says, although he believes that online video is not necessarily cannibalizing television.
"Our business is at the beginning of taking off," Ferber says. "We're in the first inning and we've just raised a bunch of money so we're not in a rush to go public."
"We're preparing the company to be ready to go public in 2015 but we don't know if we will," Ferber says. That means getting the kind of robust, disciplined accounting in place that the SEC requires. "I want to make an informed decision in 2015, so I can say, 'we're ready, let's go,'" if the timing is right.