21st Century Fox has come to an agreement to buy ad-tech company True[X], the company announced today.
By acquiring True[X], 21st Century Fox is taking a step away from the digital ad impresson rat race. The acqusition allows the company to decrease its reliance on banners, a smart move for a publisher with a strong brand but limited inventory. The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, which put the deal price at around $200 million dollars.
Companies investing lots of money in content, as 21st Century Fox does, find themselves in competition for ad dollars with the rest of the internet. And often they're competing against less valuable ad impressions that are nonetheless put on an even plane.
Enter True[X]. The company makes its living on ads which require consumer engagement, promising advertisers its ads are not ignored -- a simple but difficult to produce result in online advertising. Some True[X] ads ask for an engagement in exchange for eliminating standard ads slated to be served in the future, contracting ad inventory rather than expanding it. The company also promises advertisers limited exposure to questionable inventory, addressing marketers's ad fraud concerns.
The eight-year-old ad tech firm, originally known as SocialVibe, was named one of Ad Age's best places to work in 2014.
True[X] and 21st Century Fox declined to comment.