Outbrain acquires video intelligence AG for about $55 million

Content recommendation platform Outbrain announced that it has agreed to acquire video intelligence AG (‘vi’) for approximately $55 million, marking its first acquisition following its July IPO.

Swiss-based vi, which provides a contextual video technology platform for digital and CTV media owners, enables media owners to enhance user engagement and monetization by adding relevant video content to articles. It also provides advertisers with brand-safe video ad inventory for awareness and user engagement. 

“We are delighted to join Outbrain, and become a core part of creating the leading video engagement platform,” said Kai Henniges, Co-Founder and CEO of vi. “Our years of video expertise and unique offering for publishers and CTV providers are a perfect addition to Outbrain’s leading market position and premium global media owner partnerships. Together we will accelerate our mission to inspire, inform and entertain users by putting video in context. We believe we have found a great match between our companies’ cultures and we share the same vision of the future of media.”

Outbrain will acquire vi for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $55 million, funded by $46.75 million of balance sheet cash and 412,500 Outbrain shares. 

Providing advertisers ad targeting technologies across different native ad formats, such as video, app install ads, and carousels, Outbrain generated $251 million in revenue in the third quarter of 2021, up 34% year-over-year. Delivering a personalized user experience to around one billion monthly unique users, Outbrain says its platform generated more than $3 billion direct revenue for digital media owners. 

“vi fits perfectly into Outbrain’s core strategy of providing media owners with technology to enhance user engagement and monetization through relevant content and ads,” said David Kostman, Co-CEO of Outbrain. 

“The combination with vi will allow us to deepen our partnership with media owners, providing mid- and top-of-article video solutions. It will also expand our addressable market, introducing high-quality in-stream video inventory to support our brand advertisers. We see significant synergies between our companies and we are very excited to welcome the incredibly talented and experienced vi team to Outbrain,” added Yaron Galai, Co-Founder and Co-CEO.

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022 and is expected to be accretive in the first year.