Xandr Xandr, Inc. (pronounced "Zander") is the advertising and analytics subsidiary of Microsoft, which operates an online platform, ''Community'', for buying and selling consumer-centric digital advertising. In December 2021, AT&T announced that t ...

, formerly known as AppNexus, is an American multinational

technology company A technology company (or tech company) is a company that focuses primarily on the manufacturing, support, research and development of—most commonly computing, telecommunication and consumer electronics–based—technology-intensive products and ...

operating a

cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles, suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may ...

-based software platform that enables and optimizes programmatic online advertising. Headquartered in the Flatiron District of New York City, the company has 23 offices in North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Australia. AppNexus offers

online auction An online auction (also electronic auction, e-auction, virtual auction, or eAuction) is an auction held over the internet and accessed by internet connected devices. Similar to in-person auctions, online auctions come in a variety of types, with ...

infrastructure and technology for data management, optimization, financial clearing and support for directly negotiated

advertising campaign An advertising campaign or marketing campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication (IMC). An IMC is a platform in which a group of people can group their ide ...

s. It has both

demand-side platform A demand-side platform (DSP) is a concept that combines various software for advertisers (or advertising agencies) to automate the process of buying and selling ad impressions in real time. This platform provides digital advertising inventory wi ...

(DSP),

supply-side platform A supply-side platform (SSP) or sell-side platform is a technology platform to enable web publishers and digital out-of-home (DOOH) media owners to manage their advertising inventory, fill it with ads, and receive revenue. Many of the larger web ...

(SSP), and ad serving functionalities. It integrates with advertising sources including Google's "Authorized Buyers" ad exchange, Magnite,

Pubmatic PubMatic, Inc. develops and implements online advertising software and strategies for the digital publishing and advertising industry. PubMatic's sell-side, real-time programmatic ad transaction advertising software puts publishers of websites, ...

and other aggregators. It operates out of multiple

data center A data center is a building, a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems. Since IT operations are crucial for busines ...

s, including one in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

serving

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

, in a facility shared with

Equinix Equinix Inc. is an American multinational company headquartered in Redwood City, California. It specializes in internet connectivity and colocation centres, also referred to as carrier hotels. The company converted to a real estate investment t ...

. In June 2018,

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

announced it was acquiring the company and putting it under its

division as a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

. AppNexus was reportedly sold for $1.6 billion, while most news outlets speculated the company did not sell for less than $2 billion. In October 2019, Xandr purchased Clypd, a privately-held technology company focused on enabling programmatic buying of linear television advertising. In December 2021, AT&T announced that they had agreed to sell Xandr to

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

for an undisclosed price, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory reviews.

Founders and financing

AppNexus was founded by former

Right Media Right Media, Inc. was an online advertising company that operated the Right Media Exchange (RMX), a marketplace that enabled Advertising, advertisers, Web publishers, publishers, and Advertising network, ad networks to trade digital media. Techn ...

staff, CTO

Brian O'Kelley Brian (sometimes spelled Bryan in English) is a male given name of Irish and Breton origin, as well as a surname of Occitan origin. It is common in the English-speaking world. It is possible that the name is derived from an Old Celtic word ...

, and Mike Nolet, product manager and director of analytics, with Michael Rubenstein, a former vice president and general manager at Google

DoubleClick DoubleClick Inc. was an American advertisement company that developed and provided Internet ad serving services from 1995 until its acquisition by Google in March 2008. DoubleClick offered technology products and services that were sold primaril ...

, who joined AppNexus as president in September 2009. The company was financially backed by

Khosla Ventures Khosla Ventures is a private American venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California. It was founded by entrepreneur Vinod Khosla in 2004. The firm works with early-stage companies in the Internet, computing, mobile technology, artifici ...

First Round Capital First Round Capital is a US-based venture capital firm that specializes in providing seed-stage funding to technology companies. Founded by Josh Kopelman and Howard Morgan First Round typically provides seed-stage funding and focuses on po ...

Venrock Venrock (portmanteau of Venture and Rockefeller) is an American venture capital firm formed in 1969 to build upon the successful investing activities of the Rockefeller family that began in the late 1930s. It has offices in Palo Alto, California, ...

, Kodiak Venture Partners,

Marc Andreessen Marc Lowell Andreessen ( ; born July 9, 1971) is an American businessman and former software engineer. He is the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used web browser with a graphical user interface; co-founder of Netscape; and co-founder and ...

, Ben Horowitz, and

Ron Conway Ronald Crawford Conway (born March 9, 1951) is an American venture capitalist and philanthropist. He has been described as one of Silicon Valley's " super angels". He is co-founder of SV Angel. Early career Conway graduated from San Jose State ...

; as of 2015 the company had raised $250 million in financing. O'Kelley stepped down as CEO in October 2018.Brian O’Kelley Steps Down As AppNexus CEO
Published by adexchanger.com on October 5, 2018, retrieved on September 11, 2019

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Appnexus 2007 establishments in New York City Pay-per-click search engines E-commerce software Online companies of the United States American companies established in 2007 Marketing companies established in 2007 Online advertising services and affiliate networks Mass media companies based in New York City Microsoft acquisitions Microsoft subsidiaries Former AT&T subsidiaries 2018 mergers and acquisitions