LiveRamp Buys Data Plus Math to Boost Targeted TV Ad Presence

Author

Michael Beach
July 02, 2019

Big News: LiveRamp has agreed to acquire Data Plus Math for $150M ($120M in cash + $30M in stock).

What is Data Plus Math?  Data Plus Math is a software and analytics company that helps advertisers attribute business outcomes to advertising spend.

Quote from Scott Howe – CEO @ LiveRamp:“As an industry we’ve been talking for the past couple years about when is the turning point coming in television?”

Key details for Data Plus Math:
1) Founded in 2016
2) 20 employees
3) ≈ $5M in annual revenue
4) 24-30X revenue multiple on the purchase price
5) $7.5M in capital raised over 2 funding rounds
6) The companies share 10 customers

Quote from Allison Metcalfe — GM of TV @ LiveRamp:“In the new world you can say, ‘I’m going to pay you to get this many people to come to my website, or I’m going to pay you based on this sale metric that I care about.’ These are becoming secondary guarantees”“What the network may offer to the buy-side is both a traditional Nielsen metric, but also a secondary guarantee based on outcomes as well. That’s very ground-breaking and new to the industry. The currency hasn’t changed for decades. This is a very new, revolutionary idea.”

Our take: This is a big win for the Data Plus Math team and the entire advanced video ecosystem.  Smart companies like LiveRamp are not willing to pay 24-30X multiples if a vertical isn’t hot.

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