DoubleVerify to acquire OpenSlate for $150m

DoubleVerify, a software platform for digital media measurement, data and analytics, has entered into an agreement to acquire OpenSlate, a pre-campaign contextual targeting platform that enables brands to align advertising with suitable or contextually relevant content across social video and CTV, for $150m (£111m).

OpenSlate’s solutions provide insight into the nature and quality of ad-supported content on large, video-driven social platforms, such as Facebook, TikTok and YouTube. Founded in 2012, the company evaluates video for brand safety, suitability and context, and offers customers pre-activation controls to ensure advertisers can effectively target the most appropriate and impactful content. OpenSlate operates across 37 international markets and supports leading agency holding companies and more than 200 global brands, including Coca-Cola, Facebook, Kimberly-Clark, Pfizer and Unilever.

DoubleVerify said that OpenSlate’s pre-activation targeting controls, combined with its granular post-flight measurement capabilities, will create the industry’s most comprehensive, end-to-end brand safety, suitability and contextual platform for social video and CTV.

“DoubleVerify’s’s mission is to make digital advertising stronger, safer and more secure, giving global brands clarity and confidence in their digital investments,” said DoubleVerify CEO, Mark Zagorski. “Our strategy in support of this mission is to verify everywhere, across channels, formats, platforms and geographies. The combination with OpenSlate fully supports this approach. OpenSlate’s pre-campaign solutions perfectly complement DoubleVerify’s post-campaign measurement capabilities across CTV and social environments. Integrating the two provides advertisers with unparalleled end-to-end brand safety, suitability and contextual optimization. No other company will be able to deliver a fully-owned, integrated solution across the leading social and CTV walled gardens.”