Shares of advertising platform Magnite (NASDAQ: MGNI) — product of the merger between The Rubicon Project and Telaria last summer — are up over 20% today. The company is building on its strength in connected TV (CTV) by acquiring SpotX from RTL Group for $1.17 billion. The deal will create the largest stand-alone CTV and video-advertising platform, exceptional positioning given the preliminary fourth-quarter 2020 results Magnite just reported.
Even before the pandemic struck last year, streaming TV was a hot industry. With consumers stuck at home, COVID-19 has accelerated their migration to internet-based streaming and video. Magnite said its CTV revenue grew 53% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2020 (compared with stand-alone results from the Rubicon Project and Telaria last year) to $15.3 million, or just shy of 19% of its total revenue of $82 million in the fourth quarter.
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