*By Alex Heath*
AT&T is in talks to acquire the advertising company AppNexus, Cheddar has learned.
Privately-held AppNexus operates one of the largest independent ad exchanges, which facilitates the buying and selling of digital ads. The purchase by AT&T would signal the telecom giant’s ambition to challenge the dominance of Google and Facebook in online advertising.
People familiar with the talks told Cheddar that the deal is close to being finalized. The price of the planned transaction couldn’t be learned, but one person close to AppNexus said the company would likely not sell for less than $2 billion.
AT&T and AppNexus both declined to comment for this article.
AT&T recently won court approval to buy Time Warner for $85 billion, a landmark acquisition that gives the company ownership of Turner, HBO, and the Warner Bros. film studio. After the Time Warner (now WarnerMedia) deal was approved last week, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson [told CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/video/2018/06/15/watch-cnbcs-full-exclusive-interview-with-att-ceo-randall-stephenson.html) that the company was also in the process of starting a “significant advertising platform” and would announce at least one other acquisition “in the coming weeks to demonstrate our commitment to that.”
Leading AT&T’s efforts to build an advertising business is Brian Lesser, the former CEO of GroupM North America who joined AT&T in October 2017. Lesser previously sat on the board of AppNexus. AT&T is already one of AppNexus’s biggest customers, according to a person familiar with the business.
AppNexus originally planned to hold an initial public offering in early 2017 but backed out of the process, according to another person close to the company. CEO Brian O’Kelly told Cheddar a few months ago that the business was [“very, very financially healthy.”](https://cheddar.com/videos/unilever-threatens-to-pull-ads-from-google-and-facebook) The New York-based company has raised roughly $344 million in private funding since it was founded in 2007.
Buying AppNexus would give AT&T the kind of scaled ad buying and analytics platform needed to monetize its newly-purchased content from WarnerMedia, BTIG media analyst Rich Greenfield told Cheddar on Tuesday.
“It's virtually impossible to compete with the scale of Google and Facebook today,” he said. “Buying AppNexus gets the buyer in the game with a scaled, global, open platform that could be uniquely valuable to a buyer who is trying to improve monetization across mobile devices.”
Stephenson recently said that AT&T planned to launch an ad-supported streaming video service that will include content from WarnerMedia properties like Turner, which owns CNN, TBS, TNT, and other TV channels.
Nvidia on Wednesday became the first public company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion. The ravenous appetite for the Silicon Valley company’s chips is the main reason that the company’s stock price has increased so rapidly since early 2023.
Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global, breaks down September’s CPI print and inflation trends, explaining what it means for markets.
A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports on Sunday morning soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. The hold on planes taking off for LAX lasted an hour and 45 minutes and didn't appear to cause continued problems. The FAA said staffing shortages also delayed planes headed to Washington, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey on Sunday.
Boeing workers at three Midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed have voted to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago. The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in the Missouri cities of St. Louis and St. Charles, and in Mascoutah, Illinois, is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners. The president of the International Association of Machinists says Sunday's outcome shows Boeing hasn't adequately addressed wages and retirement benefits. Boeing says Sunday's vote was close with 51% of union members opposing the revised offer.
The stunning indictment that led to the arrest of more than 30 people — including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and other NBA figures — has drawn new scrutiny of the booming business of sports betting in the U.S. The multibillion-dollar industry has made it easy for sports fans — and even some players — to wager on everything from the outcome of games to that of a single play with just a few taps of a cellphone. But regulating the rapidly-growing industry has proven to be a challenge. Professional sports leagues’ own role in promoting gambling has also raised eyebrows.
