What you need to know in advertising today
Just a few weeks after AT&T snatched up the New York ad tech company AppNexus for $1.6 billion, another big ad tech name is getting a major cash infusion.
MediaMath, which operates one of the more prominent ad buying platforms in digital media (i.e. a 'demand side platform'), has just announced a whopping $225 million in new financing, led by the private equity firm Searchlight Capital Partners.
To read more about what MediaMath plans to do with the cash infusion, click here.
In other news:
Sir Martin Sorrell beats WPP in the race to buy MediaMonks - but is losing a £20 million payout in the process. WPP was also looking at buying MediaMonks and says Sorrell used proprietary information from his time as CEO, and intends to withhold future share bonus payouts.
YouTube is taking steps to combat fake news and conspiracy theories on the platform. When major stories occur, YouTube plans to immediately follow up by providing brief previews of news articles in YouTube's search results that link to the full stories so that users can "find quality" information.
Everything you need to know about California's tough net neutrality bill. If passed, California would have the strongest net neutrality protections in the country.
AT&T is already pushing HBO to be more like Netflix, and it signals dramatic changes for the network. Now that HBO is owned by AT&T, the network's new corporate boss, John Stankey, wants HBO to develop more shows and movies to compete with other streaming services like Netflix.
New code in the Android version of Snapchat suggests that Snap is teaming up with Amazon for a "visual search" feature, Tech Crunch reports. The feature lets users point their camera to identify "an object, song, barcode and more" and then presents them with Amazon product listings for those items.
Ad agency Laundry Service and its media company and production unit Cycle have undergone a restructuring and laid off around 10% of its staff, Adweek reports. The company's founder and CEO Jason Stein is also leaving the agency to pursue new entrepreneurial endeavors.