Equativ, a supply-side platform headquartered in Paris and New York, is acquiring Sharethrough, another SSP with a strong North American presence and a specialty in native advertising.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the combined net recurring revenue of the two companies will be above $200 million. The deal will be funded through capital from Equativ’s majority owner, private equity firm Bridgepoint, which bought its stake in the company in February 2023 for a deal worth around $370 million, Business Insider reported at the time.
Two other private equity firms, Capital Croissance and Adelie Capital, are contributing financing, along with debt from investment firm Alcentra. Sharethrough’s co-founders are also rolling over 50% of their equity into the new company, said JF Cote, Sharethrough’s CEO.
Equativ is aiming to become a top three supply side platform and compete with large publicly traded players like Magnite and PubMatic, as buyers are increasingly working with a narrower set of ad-tech partners.
The thesis of the deal is based on the relatively little overlap between the two SSPs businesses, said Equaitv CEO Arnaud Créput. 40% of Equativ’s business is U.S.-based, while another 40% is based in the European Union and the remaining 20% is in Latin America, the Middle East, North Africa and Asian Pacific regions.
Sharethrough, by contrast, has most of its business in North America, and its clients include tier-one agencies, holding companies and Fortune 1000 brands, while Equativ’s clients are mostly independent agencies and direct advertisers.
Additionally, Sharethrough works with tier-one U.S. publishers and its revenue is equally split across display, native and video while Equativ’s business is 60% display, 25% online video and 15% connected television.
“What matters when you merge two SSPs is to get the minimum overlap you can because it’s potentially negative synergies,” Créput told ADWEEK. “You have access to the same inventory, talking to the same buyers and it’s not one plus one equals three, or even two, sometimes it can be one plus one equals 1.8.”
Equativ can avoid this fate by acquiring Sharethrough, an SSP with which overlap is more minimal. The deal is reflective of an industry-wide rejection of working with too many SSPs, and toward supply path optimization, minimizing the hops between buyer and seller.
“Sharethrough is good where equative is weak,” Créput said. “And Sharethrough is weaker where Equativ is very strong.”
Getting to a deal
Discussions between the two companies began three years ago after Sharethrough postponed a planned initial public offering in November 2021 as frothy market conditions turned less fortuitous. It took Bridgepoint investing in Equativ for the deal to become a reality.
“The tipping point was about finding the right investor, who believes in the vision, who believes in building a global tech champion,” Cote said. “Finally, we were able to satisfy all our shareholders with a vision and could combine the two companies, powered by Bridgepoint.”
