MediaMath seeks bankruptcy protection
June 30, 2023 • 2 min learn • By Ronan Shields
Ivy Liu
MediaMath is submitting for chapter protection, an emergency continuing that took put after it did no longer efficiently negotiate terms with probably customers in most contemporary weeks, Digiday has learned.
It’s a pattern that can have foremost repercussions felt throughout the digital media landscape leaving hundreds out of labor, and dozens of sell-aspect ad tech corporations, largely publishers, out of pocket, with tens of thousands and thousands value of cash owed.
Executives at provide-aspect platforms scurried for recordsdata as phrase filtered out that MediaMath’s financial backers did no longer agree a deal with potentially acquirers dumb this week.
Staffers on the company had been told of MediaMath’s approaching closure earlier this present day (June 30) with a skeleton crew retained — its headcount became as soon as roughly 300 per sources — retained to administer complaints in the arrival weeks, per AdExchanger.
MediaMath’s most contemporary negotiations, facilitated by investment bank Houlihan Lokey, started in earnest in mid-Would per chance per chance merely, per sources with speak knowledge of the negotiations. Amongst the names strongly linked with a probably MediaMath takeover had been fellow are awaiting-aspect platform Viant and Verve Community, a beefy-stack ad tech company owned by Media Games Make investments (MGI).
These talks had been the result of a “hasty-sale course of” that had emerged in most contemporary weeks after representatives of MediaMath contacted outside parties that can were drawn to the DSP, per a provide accustomed to the developments.
The proposed transaction valuation became as soon as concept to were in the residing of $60 million, proper a fraction of the approximate $600 million raised by MediaMath since it became as soon as founded in 2007. On the varied hand, a deal did no longer materialize that strategy the directors had been called in with the final destiny of the company now risky.
MediaMath is undoubtedly one of many longest-standing names in ad tech, nevertheless its funds have turn into complicated in most contemporary years, per sources, with its founder and popular CEO Joe Zawadski exiting in early 2022.
In mid-2020 Digiday first reported that MediaMath had appointed Centerview Companions to inquire out probably bidders, whereas a 2021 gross sales deck seen by Digiday mentioned that horrible spending on its platform became as soon as roughly $591 million in 2020 — 70% of which became as soon as U.S.-based completely mostly, and 60% of which got here in the present day from producers.
After Zawadski’s exit, a recapitalization spherical by Searchlight Capital seen the PE firm steal a majority stake in the DSP and “wiped out” a lot of the equity of cofounders and different early staff and customers, per a March 2023 article by Insider.
The chapter motion is the second such excessive-profile circulation in ad tech this yr following Huge Village and EMX Digital’s Chapter 11 submitting in February with extra seasoned observers in the residing likely to assemble comparisons between Mediamath’s destiny with that of Sizmek in 2019.
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