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State of the Screens

With dataxu buy, Roku unveils big ad ambitions

By October 31, 2019No Comments

The big news: Roku announced plans to acquire dataxu for $150M in cash/stock.

Key details for dataxu:
1) Founded in 2009
2) Based in Boston, MA
3) $87.5M in capital raised
4) 302 employees according to LinkedIn

Quote from Alison Levin – VP of ad sales and strategy @ Roku:
“The acquisition of dataxu furthers our ambition to right-size media spend [in streaming] against consumption…This provides our own self-serve platform for buyers to optimize across linear, OTT, desktop and mobile.”

Roku is adding the following:
1) Self-serve media buying platform
2) Device graph technology
3) Desktop/mobile footprint
4) Performance-based marketing experience

Video: Roku’s Unique Position

More #1: Why TV Companies Want To Own Buying Platforms – And Why It Might Hurt Buyers

More #2: Unpacking Roku’s Purchase of Dataxu

More #3: Roku is developing ad measurement tools that will soon run across all of OTT

Michael Beach

Michael Beach is the Chief Executive Officer of Cross Screen Media, a media analytics and software company that enables marketers to plan, activate, and measure CTV and linear TV at the local level. Michael is also the founder and editor of State of the Screens, a weekly newsletter focused on video advertising that is a must-read for thought leaders in the advertising industry. He has appeared in such publications as PBS Frontline, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Axios, CNBC and Bloomberg, and on NPR’s Planet Money podcast.