Ad software company Viant valued at $2.5 bln in Nasdaq debut
10/02/2021 17:15
By Sohini Podder
Feb 10 (Reuters) - Shares of Viant Technology Inc DSP.O
jumped 76% in their market debut on Wednesday, giving the
advertising software company a market capitalization of $2.53
billion.
Viant's shares opened at $44, well above their initial
public offering price of $25 per share. The company offered 10
million shares in the IPO, raising about $250 million.
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Founded in 1998 by brothers Tim, Chris and Russ Vanderhook,
Viant offers a cloud-based platform that allows ad buyers to
plan, create, execute and measure their digital advertising
investments.
"For us, it was really seizing on this transition that's
happening within digital advertising, a move away from cookies
or device tracking, more towards people-based," Chief Operating
Officer Tim Vanderhook told Reuters.
People-based marketing uses an individual's identifiable
information, such as an e-mail address, to track their activity
across devices and browsers and it has proved to be more
effective than cookie-based marketing.
Chief Executive Officer Chris Vanderhook said marketers are
selecting people-based platforms for their advertising needs.
For the year ended Dec. 21, 2019, Viant reported a profit of
$9.9 million on revenue of $164.9 million.
BofA Securities and UBS Investment Bank were the lead
underwriters for Viant's offering.
(Editing by Ramakrishnan M.)
((sohini.podder@thomsonreuters.com;))